TEHRAN — Three Iranian border guards have been martyred during a clash with armed thugs, IRNA reported on Friday.

The police said the incident happened in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan and on the border with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The guards lost their lives in a gunfight at a border post near the city of Sardasht, some 730 kilometers (453 miles) west of Tehran, on Friday.

A number of the armed thugs were also killed in the fighting as well.

MH/PA