Two IRGC members shot dead in Kurdish-majority Paveh; little-known armed group claims attack

Summary

Gunmen shot dead two members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at the entrance of their home in Paveh, a Kurdish-majority city in Kermanshah province near the Iraq-Kurdistan border, on the evening of June 29. The killed guards were Khalid Khalidi and Borhan Khorisani. Two others, Kamal Shabrang and Kamal Abdi, were wounded; Shabrang was placed in a coma. Iranian state media called the attack a "terrorist and cowardly act." An armed group called Xore Heva, Sun of Hope, claimed responsibility, saying it struck in retaliation for the state crackdown on protests that followed Mahsa Amini's 2022 death in police custody.

Why it matters

The attack signals continued armed insurgency in Iran's Kurdish borderlands even as Tehran pursues ceasefire diplomacy with Washington. The emergence of Xore Heva as a new claimant group, separate from established forces like PJAK, suggests fragmentation and expansion of armed resistance in Western Iran following years of post-Amini repression.