IRGC forces engage outlaws near Turkey border, kill one
Forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) have dismantled a group of four counter-revolutionary outlaws close to the Turkish border in West Azarbaijan Province.
On Thursday, Alireza Madani, the commander of the IRGC wing in northwestern Salmas County, said the criminals had sneaked into Iran from neighboring Turkey.
However, IRGC forces engaged them in an area 25 kilometers from the city of Salmas, killing one of them and arresting another, Madani said.
He added that the two others managed to flee back to Turkey.
“Based on precise information, all of the four were residents of Turkey and counter-revolutionary outlaws, planning to arrange and carry out terrorist acts, but they failed,” the IRGC commander said.
A number of weapons were also seized from the criminals during the operation.
The clashes come as Turkey has plummeted into chaos after a botched military coup there over the weekend.
In the wake of the coup, Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said Iran is closely monitoring developments in Turkey.
“Our military, security, and intelligence forces have been put on alert to the necessary level. Our borders are completely under control,” he said.
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani also said the Islamic Republic is concerned about the situation in Turkey, adding that Iran is in full control of all its ground and aerial borders with Turkey.
Iranian forces have recently engaged in clashes with terror groups, thwarting their terrorist activities in the border areas, arresting several of them and confiscating large amounts of explosives and bomb-making materials.
In late June, IRGC forces clashed with Kurdish militants who had infiltrated a village in the Mahabad County of West Azerbaijan Province. Similar clashes had also erupted in the Oshnavieh County in the same province earlier that month.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said security forces had arrested 40 members of a terror cell that planned to carry out attacks in the eastern parts of the country.
