Two killed in ‘counterrevolutionary’ attack in western Iran

Revolutionary Guards says civilian, local official and Basij militiaman attacked while helping locals deal with pandemic in restive Kurdish region

By AFP 16 July 2020, 11:51 am

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Illustrative photo: A militiaman of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group, stands behind his truck-mounted machine gun near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on September 5, 2016. (AP/Balint Szlanko)

TEHRAN, Iran — Two people were killed and one was wounded in a “terrorist” attack by “counterrevolutionary groups” in Iran’s western province of Kurdistan, the IRNA state news agency reported on Thursday.

The three “were helping locals during the difficult days of fighting coronavirus before being targeted by terrorist groups” on Wednesday night, the agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards statement as saying.

They were a resident, an official with the prefect’s office and a member of Iran’s Basij militia, it added, without naming them.

The attack took place near the village of Bolbar, the statement said, without specifying which group was responsible.

For much of the past 40 years, Iran has been battling Kurdish militants who use bases in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan to stage attacks against the Guards and state institutions inside the country.