TEHRAN – A local official in West Azarbaijan Province said on Monday that about 150 PJAK members have been killed in recent days. 

Speaking to the Mehr News Agency, Issa Qanbari, the deputy governor general for security affairs in West Azarbaijan Province, also dismissed Turkish media reports that Iranian security forces have captured the second top member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Some Turkish media outlets reported on Saturday that Iranian intelligence forces arrested Murat Karayilan, the PKK number two man and the current leader of the terrorist organization. PKK is a separatist organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish government for an autonomous Kurdistan. 

PJAK is an offshoot of PKK which engages in armed clashes with Iranian security forces along the country’s northwestern borders with Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

Qanbari said, “Now the security on the border between West Azarbaijan Province and Iraq is at the highest level.” 

He added that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces, operating in the region, stormed PJAK defensive lines and demolished their strongholds.

“Due to the powerful presence of Sepah forces and border guards, about 150 PJAK members were killed and others were compelled to retreat,” he said.