Eight Iranian guards killed near borders with Turkey

TEHRAN, Nov 3 (KUNA) -- Eight Iranian border guards were killed in a gunfight with Kurdish separatists in Chaldoran border point in West Azerbaijan province, northwest Iran, on Friday evening.
During an armed clash with terrorists from the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) a large number of the terrorists were killed by the Iranian forces, IRNA news agency quoted a local official as saying.
The Iranian forces launched a massive manhunt for the terrorists in the mountainous area following the clash, said Alireza Radfar, the deputy governor of West Azerbaijan for political, security and social affairs.
He noted that the conflict occurred in the zero point of Iran-Turkey border at the Chaldoran region. Iran has 550 km-long borders with Turkey in West Azerbaijan.
The PJAK, a militant leftist-nationalist group has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian government for self-determination.
The group, labelled as terrorist by Iran and other western countries, including the United States, is believed to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is fighting a similar war against the Turkish government. (end) fz.gb