TEHRAN, July 21 (Xinhua) -- A police official said two "terrorists" were killed and a third wounded during clashes between Iranian security forces and gunmen in northwestern Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.
"The seven-hour crossfire took place after police and security forces in the West Azerbaijan province identified the terrorists' hideout in Vali-e Asr township in the provincial capital city of Urumiyeh on Monday evening," the local police official was quoted by Fars as saying.
The report, however, did not elaborate the identity and affiliation of the "terrorists."
Iran's western provinces have been the hotbed of regular armed clashes between Iranian security forces and Kurdish militant parties, in particular the separatist Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an anti-Iranian Kurdish group linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).
In May, PJAK forces attacked a police station in the town of Ravansar located in northern part of Iran's western Kermanshah province, which led to the killing of 10 rebels and 10 Iranian police.
Some Iranian analysts said PJAK rebels are holed up in northeastern Iraq from which they operate against Iran. Iran's West Azerbaijan province accommodates a population of Kurdish ethnicity alongside Azeri Iranians.
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