At least three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in separate armed attacks on 29–30 June, marking an escalation of violence across the country’s western and southeastern borderlands. In the Kurdish-majority city of Paveh, near the Iraqi frontier, gunmen shot dead two IRGC members at their home and wounded two others. Iranian state media identified the dead as Borhan Karisani and Khaled Khaledi. Hours later, in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, an IRGC member and his wife were killed when their vehicle was sprayed with bullets in Saravan. Separately, a senior IRGC Navy officer, recently sanctioned by the European Union, died in a car crash in Kerman province, though authorities have not linked that incident to the insurgency. The IRGC also announced it had ambushed and destroyed a six-member “separatist” team in the mountains between Mahabad and Piranshahr, recovering four bodies and weaponry.

Iranian authorities described the Paveh attack as a “cowardly terrorist act” and, through state television, blamed the Saravan shooting on “Zionist-American mercenaries” — a term routinely used for separatist and militant groups. A newly formed Kurdish armed group, Khori Hiva (Sun of Hope), claimed responsibility for the Paveh operation, according to the Norway-based human rights organisation Hengaw. The group’s statement accused Khaledi of involvement in the violent crackdown on the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests and declared its aim to “promote political awareness, strengthen Kurdish national identity, and confront the policies of the Islamic Republic.” The attack comes as seven Kurdish Iranian opposition parties — including PJAK, PDKI, PAK, Khabat, and factions of Komala — have been coordinating through a coalition formed in late 2025 to unify political and military efforts against Tehran.

Viewed from Tehran, the attacks are part of a foreign-backed campaign to destabilise the Islamic Republic in the wake of a fragile ceasefire and memorandum of understanding with the United States. President Masoud Pezeshkian told senior clerics in Qom that enemies seek to “create the conditions for internal instability and the collapse of the country.” Iran has formally demanded through Iraq’s ambassador that Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government either hand over Kurdish opposition leaders or relocate them to a third country, invoking a border security agreement signed over three years ago. Turkish officials, according to Israeli media reports, have urged Washington not to draw Kurdish forces into the conflict with Iran, fearing a PJAK-led insurgency could embolden Kurdish movements across the region. A former head of Israeli military intelligence confirmed that Kurdish forces were part of an initial US-Israeli scenario but were sidelined after Turkish intervention.

Investigations into the attacks are ongoing, and no group has yet claimed the Saravan shooting. The IRGC has vowed a “decisive and regret-inducing” response to any further border insecurity. The EU sanctions on the IRGC Navy officer, imposed for restricting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, tie the incident to the broader cycle of US-Iran tit-for-tat strikes that preceded the ceasefire. The emergence of new armed groups and the formal coalition of Kurdish opposition parties signal a potential widening of the insurgency, while diplomatic channels between Tehran, Baghdad, and Ankara remain active but strained. The next factual steps include the completion of Iranian investigations and the possibility of further IRGC operations along the northwestern border.