US-Kurdish Committee president says clash is not full uprising, but it’s not ‘business as usual’ as Iran pressures opposition
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Thursday it killed five members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, while the Kurdish opposition group told Fox News Digital that six of its Peshmerga — a term commonly used for Kurdish fighters — were killed in what it described as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ambush in northwest Iran.
The clash marks another escalation in Iran’s Kurdish-majority west after days of reported attacks and clashes involving Iranian security forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kurdish armed factions.
It also underscores the current position of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups that recently were viewed by U.S. and Israeli officials as a possible pressure point against Tehran during the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran but ultimately stayed out of the conflict amid mixed signals from Washington and pressure from both Iran and Turkey.
Majeed Gly, president of the American Kurdish Committee, told Fox News Digital the latest clashes should not be read as a full-scale uprising, but also should not be dismissed as routine border violence.
“What I’m hearing is, this is not business as usual,” Gly said. “This is not like periodic clashes on the border. This is operations, and it seems to be deep inside.”