Iranian security forces have killed several members of a Kurdish guerrilla group and arrested four in western Iran, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.

Iranian guards killed members of PJAK guerrilla group, all of whom were of Turkish nationality, a deputy governor of Kermanshah, Hojjatollah Damiyat, said.

"These individuals were organised and equipped by Israeli and American espionage services," the deputy governor said, in comments carried by Iran's Mehr News Agency.

It did not say when the clash took place.

Iranian forces often clash with guerrillas from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 to fight for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
Tehran often accuses the United States and its allies of stirring up trouble in Iran.

The official IRNA news agency, citing an "informed source", also said on Tuesday that three men and a 16-year-old girl were detained around the western Iranian city of Sanandaj.

It said the group were detained on Sunday, and some arms and ammunition were also seized.

Like neighbouring Iraq and Turkey, Iran has a large Kurdish minority, mainly living in the country's northwest and west.

Iran sees PJAK, which seeks autonomy for Kurdish areas in Iran and shelters in Iraq's northeastern border provinces, as a terrorist group.

Reuters