At least two Iranian Kurdish rebels and one member of Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guards were killed during clashes along the Islamic Republic's border with Iraq, the two sides said on Sunday.

The fighting came less than a week after Iran warned that it reserved the right to attack the bases of the PJAK, or the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, in neighbouring Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

"Since midnight (2100 GMT Saturday), heavy battles have been ongoing between PJAK and the Iranian army, resulting in injuries among elements of our group," rebel spokesman Sherzad Kamankar told AFP.

Kamankar said two rebels were killed and four wounded, and that Iranian forces had suffered several casualties in the fighting near the Banjaween area of Iraqi Kurdistan's Sulaimaniyah province.

Iran's official IRNA news agency, meanwhile, quoted an unnamed source in the Iranian border town of Sardasht as saying five PJAK members and a Revolutionary Guard were killed in the clashes.

The bodies of the five rebels were being "transferred to Sardasht," it said.

The Guards have detained an injured PJAK member and have "full control of the Sardasht border area," IRNA said. "The PJAK forces left lots of ammunition and escaped the area."

Jabbar Yawar, the top official in the Iraqi Kurdish ministry responsible for the region's peshmerga security forces, earlier confirmed Iranian shelling of PJAK bases, but said he received no reports of clashes and had no toll.

According to Kamankar, Iranian forces warned villagers living in areas along Iraq's side of the border to evacuate their homes within three days. Yawar, however, dismissed the claim as a "rumour".

Iran routinely shells border districts of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, targeting PJAK bases, including a July 7 bombardment of Haj Omran.

The shelling came despite a warning on July 3 by the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massud Barzani, over the cross-border operations.

On July 11, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed army official as saying Tehran's forces "reserve the right to attack and destroy terrorist bases in border areas".

earlier related report
Syria army readies operations near Iraq border: report
Damascus (AFP) July 17, 2011 - The army is preparing to storm the eastern border town of Al-Bukamal, next to Iraq, where "armed groups" have created an "explosive" situation," Al-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday.

"The situation in Al-Bukamal is explosive, so the army is preparing to intervene... because the authorities fear an armed revolt in this border town where (insurgents) can easily find logistical and political support," it said.

A civilian was killed in the area on Saturday when security forces opened fire to break up a demonstration against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

But the official SANA news agency spoke of "armed terrorist gangs who stormed a government building and seized the weapons stored there," adding that three security personnel were killed and two kidnapped in the attack.

Since the start of revolts in mid-March, Damascus has consistently blamed the violence racking the country on foreign interference and "armed groups" seeking to "sow chaos."

Al-Watan said the "situation was back to normal" in the central city of Hama, the epicentre of anti-government protests in recent weeks, which had raised fears of a military crackdown.

"The efforts the new governor of Hama has made with civic leaders have borne fruit. The state of civil disobedience which lasted 13 days is over," Al-Watan said.

"With the help of residents, officials have started to remove the roadblocks erected on major thoroughfares," it added.

The residents of Hama had raised barricades to prevent a military operation against the city, where memories of a 1982 crackdown against Islamists that left 20,000 people dead remain fresh.

Activists say security forces have killed least 25 civilians in the flashpoint city since July 5, when Damascus dispatched its tanks in response to an anti-regime demonstration that drew half a million people.

Video footage posted by the Facebook group The Syria Revolution 2011, a motor of the protests, showed thousands of mourners join the funerals of 28 people killed in demonstrations on Friday, most of them in Damascus, where security forces reportedly opened fire.

In Istanbul, hundreds of Syrian dissidents gathered to debate strategies to oust Assad's regime. Participants came from various countries and belonged to many different opposition groups, coordinators said.

Damascus meanwhile prepared a music festival to mark the 11th anniversary of Assad's taking the oath of office as president.

He succeeded his father, Hafez, who died on June 10, 2000, after ruling the country with an iron grip for three decades.

Since the protests began on March 15, 1,419 civilians and 352 members of the security forces have died, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Thousands more people have been arrested.

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