8 Kurdish Rebels Killed in Northwest Iran

Eight members of the rebel Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) have been killed in clashes with security forces along the Iraqi border, state media reported Wednesday.

Border guards fought the group overnight and into Wednesday morning in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, the IRNA news agency said.

The clashes lasted several hours, and the security forces did not sustain any casualties, a local governor told IRNA.

The KDPI, formed in 1945, is the oldest Kurdish political party in Iran.

Now mostly based in Kurdish areas of Iraq, it has fought on-off insurgencies demanding independence from Iran, stepping up its armed rebellion after a crackdown by the Islamic authorities in the wake of the 1979 revolution.

Iran intervened across the border in 2011 following Kurdish rebel attacks on its territory, forcing the insurgents to retreat deeper into Iraq.