Iran's Revolutionary Guards say they have killed 11 Kurdish rebels in a clash close to the border with Iraq.
Three Guards also died in the fighting, Iran's Fars news agency cited their commander in Kordestan province, Gen Mohammad Hossein Rajabi, as saying.
Gen Rajabi said the rebels were linked to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).
The PDKI said several of its fighters and more than 20 Iranian troops had been killed in clashes in recent days.
The group has been striving for decades for autonomy for predominantly Kurdish areas in north-western Iran.
Kurdish villages 'shelled'
Gen Rajabi told Fars that the 11-strong group of "counter-revolutionaries" were "eliminated" in the Sarvabad region by Revolutionary Guards.
The rebels were pursued for 10 days before they were killed, he added.
A PDKI commander called Kaveh Javanmard was among those killed, according to Brig Gen Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the Guards' ground forces.
It was not clear whether the 11 dead rebels included the five who the Guards said had been killed in clashes along the Iraqi border late on Saturday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36649782
