Pejak, a group linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), also claimed to have fought an hour-long battle with Iranian troops and to have killed 20 soldiers, including senior officer.

Pejak's statement, which was distributed to reporters in two cities in northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, said it had captured a survivor from the chopper crash and killed the chief of the Iranian army's 3rd Corps.

Iranian state media had earlier reported that the elite Revolutionary Guards had on Saturday killed 17 rebels in a remote area close to the Turkish border.

The state-run IRNA agency said the clashes took place after Revolutionary Guards ground forces launched an operation to hunt for guerrillas in an northwestern area near the Turkish border.

The report said the commander of the ground force carrying out the operation had an "accident due to bad weather" while flying by helicopter with eight others to check on the area, but did not say if there were casualties.

"Three (Iranian army) brigades took part in the operation and violent clashes between the army and Pejak lasted many hours," Pejak claimed.

"The chief of the 3rd Corps of the army, Said Qahari, and more than 20 soldiers were killed and an army helicopter was hit," it said.

Iran's northwestern West Azerbaijan province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, is the scene of regular armed clashes between Iranian border guards and Kurdish militant parties, in particular Pejak.

Pejak's guerrillas operate out of armed camps in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.