Members of the banned Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) group killed two Iranian border guards and injured five others in an armed clash in the northwestern border region.

A gunfight occurred on Saturday evening between police serving with the Orumiyeh Border Regiment and PJAK militants, Tasnim News Agency reported.

According to reports, troops from the Ziyaee border company came under attack as they were moving along the border for a routine change of guard. The clash resulted in the martyrdom of Major Mohammad Reza Firouzi, commander of the company, and Warrant Officer Mohammad Reza Farahi. PJAK is an offshoot of the internationally-recognized terrorist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which conducts deadly operations in western Iran, northern Iraq and southern Turkey.

PJAK terrorists regularly engage in armed clashes with Iranian security forces along the country’s western shared border with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.