TEHRAN: Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said they killed five armed rebels in recent clashes along its border with Iraqi Kurdistan, state media reported. A statement from the guards, published by IRNA news agency, said that five armed rebels linked to counter-revolutionary groups were killed the night before. It did not give the name of the rebel group, though a number of separatist Kurdish insurgencies are known to be active in the region. Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces commander General Mohammad Pakpour threatened to target Kurds across the border in northern Iraq. “Since the main bases of these terrorists are in northern Iraq, if they don’t follow through with commitments to stop these attacks, their bases will be targeted where they are,” said the Iranian general. There have been increasing reports of clashes in the northwest after a period of relative calm in the past year or more. On June 16, the guards said that similar clashes had led to the death of 12 ‘terrorists’ and three Iranian soldiers in the city of Oshnavieh which followed reports of five Kurdish rebels killed in the region a few days earlier.