Iran's long-dormant militant group, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), was blamed for a hit-and-run attack on security forces that left two Border Guards dead near the city of Urmieh (also rendered Urmiya) on May 28. Commander of the Iranian Border Guards, Qassem Rezayee, responded by warning Turkey to take measures against the movement of "terrorist" groups along the frontier. He said that Iranian authorities "consider Turkey responsible, and the country should account for this act…. The Iranian forces will certainly give a crushing response to these moves." Iran's Foreign Ministry has also lodged a protest with Turkey over the incident. Turkey recently started construction of a security wall on its border with Iran to prevent infiration of Kurdish militants. (Press TV, May 29; Xinhua, Kurdistan24, May 28; Kurdistan24, May 14)
Turkey's Daily Sabah meawhile ran an editoral blaming "US policy" for "renewed attacks against Iran," noting that the Kurdish militia forces the Pentagon is now backing in Syria and PJAK are both politically linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
NBC reports that the first promised Pentagon arms shipments to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were just delivered this week, mostly consisting of mall arms and vehicles. However, reflecting media confusion over the situation, NBC reports that the Syrian Democratic Forces are "also known as 'YPG'"… The YPG are in fact the People's Protection Units, the Kurdish militia which is the central pillar of the mixed Kurdish-Arab SDF coalition.
