The clashes erupted Tuesday when the Guards "ambushed a terrorist team from PJAK in the region of Dalahu and after clashes five of them, including two women were killed," Guards commander Ali Akbar Nouri was quoted as saying by Fars.

The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, is closely allied with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which operates in Turkey and is listed as a "terrorist" group by Ankara and much of the international community.

Iranian security forces regularly clash with rebels from PJAK and like Iraq and Turkey, Iran has a large Kurdish minority, who mainly lives in the northwest and west of the country.