"Mohsen Moslemi was killed in a clash with this anti-revolutionary group in the northwestern area of Chaldoran," Guard's officer Ahmad Fathi was quoted as saying.

Fathi was referring to the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), ISNA said.

The report said two other members of the unit, Rahmatollah Rahmani and Mohammad Taghi Ahamdlou, had been killed previously and that their funerals were held on Thursday in the provincial capital of Zanjan.

In recent years, Iranian forces have engaged in a series of deadly clashes with the PJAK, which operate from rear-bases in northeastern Iraq.

The rebel group has close links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Iran in recent years has seen an upsurge in unrest in several regions with ethnic minority populations, including Baluchestan in the southeast, Arab-populated Khuzestan in the southwest and Kurdish-inhabited areas.