Iran's state TV said on Friday eight border guards were killed in clashes with a group of militants in the country's northwestern Azarbaijan province that borders both Iraq and Turkey.
"At Least eight Iranian guards were killed in heavy clashes between Iran's border guards and a group of terrorists in the Chaldoran border area on Friday," said Alireza Radfar, the deputy governor general of the province said.
"The terrorists sustained heavy losses during the clashes which are still ongoing on the border with Turkey."
The Chaldoran border, around 860 km (535 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran, is near neighbouring Turkey and Iraq's borders.
Clashes with Iranian Kurdish militant groups as well Islamic rebels are common in the area.
On June 7, Islamic State attacked parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, killing at least 18 people. All of the attackers were Iranian Kurds.
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