Iran detains 11 Kurdish separatists

Eleven members of a small Kurdish separatist group were detained by Iranian security forces fro cooperating with the country’s Kurdish rebels.

Photo: Iran detains 11 Kurdish separatists

The government accused the group of attacking a police station, detonating explosives in a show of military power and carrying out propaganda for Iran 's larger separatist movement - the PEJAK, or Free Life Party of Kurdistan - state TV quoted an Iranian Intelligence Ministry statement as saying.

The PEJAK is an offshoot of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK - a Kurdish separatist group fighting authorities in neighboring Turkey that Washington and the European Union have labeled a terrorist group.

For its part, PEJAK is struggling for autonomy for Iran 's Kurds due to alleged Tehran government discrimination, and the mountainous Iran-Iraq border region has been the scene of sporadic clashes between PEJAK guerrillas and Iranian forces in recent years.

The state TV report said Iranian security forces handed the 11 Kurdish separatists over to the judiciary but did not indicate exactly when they were detained.