Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says it killed 3 ‘US-linked infiltrators’

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says that its forces killed three gunmen with links to the United States who tried to infiltrate its territory in the country’s far northwest.

“Last night, a counter-revolutionary terrorist group… got caught up in an intelligence web of (Guards) fighters in the Maku public area,” the Guards’ Sepahnews website reports.

The Guards says the armed group was “affiliated with the global arrogance,” a term the Islamic Republic uses for its arch enemy the United States.

They say the group had “intended to penetrate deep into our country” but adds that all three were killed during clashes.

“Significant quantities of weapons, equipment, ammunition and communication systems were seized,” the website says.

The Maku area is a sliver of land in West Azerbaijan province located less than 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Iran’s far northwestern border with Turkey. Iran’s west and northwest areas have seen sporadic clashes between its forces and Kurdish rebels in past years. On May 29, three Iranian border guards were killed in one such clash with “armed insurgents” in West Azerbaijan province.

— AFP