August 09, 2019
Opposition to the regime from Kurd and Baluchi rebel bands appears to be on the rise, based on regime announcements of its own losses to rebel bands.
The losses have not been huge, but they are coming on average every four days and suggest that rebels are intentionally raising the level of their activities against the regime as the United States raises the intensity of its confrontation with the regime.
In the six weeks after the beginning of July, the Iran Times collected reports of eight incidents on both sides of the country in which the Pasdaran admitted to losing 11 soldiers.
On July 2, the Pasdaran said two of their troops were killed and two rebels also killed in a shootout on the Western border in West Azerbaijan province.
On July 6, the police said a homemade bomb had exploded in a residential area of Zahedan near the Pakistani border while a second bomb found in the same city had been defused. There were no casualties but a number of windows were blown out.
On July 9, the Pasdaran said three of their troops had been killed in West Azerbaijan province on the Turkish border when Kurdish militants strafed their vehicle as it drove by in Piranshahr.
On July 11, the Pasdaran said one of its soldiers and five gunmen caught trying to sneak into Iran in Kermanshah province had died in a shootout the previous day.
On July 12, the Pasdaran said they had had killed and injured “tens” of terrorists in retaliation for attacks on Pasdar troops. Based on reporting from the Iraqi side of the border, this was apparently an artillery attack by the Pasdaran on sites just across the border where the Pasdaran suspected rebels were hiding out. The Pasdaran have periodically launched such artillery attacks, often hitting villagers in their homes or fields, though the Pasdaran claimed to have hit its targets this time with “utmost precision.”
On July 21, the Pasdaran said two of their troops had been killed during a clash with terrorists in Saravan County on the border with Pakistan. It said nothing about any terrorists being killed.
On July 26, the Pasdaran said one Pasdar had been killed that day in a clash near Sarvabad on the border with Iraq in Kurdistan province. It said “some” rebels had been killed.
On August 7, state television reported that two Pasdaran had been killed near Maku on the border with Turkey during a firefight with a rebel band. It said nothing about killing any rebels.
Meanwhile, the Pasdaran announced July 20 that they had freed three men who had been taken hostage in Fars and Kerman provinces in 2017. It said two of the men had been held in Pakistan, so it seemed more likely that Pakistani police had freed them.