 Fighting broke out between the two factions in May 1994.The initial clashes left around 300 people dead and over the next year, around 2,000 people were killed on both sides.According to former CIA officer Robert Baer, members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps provided limited support to the PDK and allowed the PDK to launch attacks from Iranian territory, attacking Penjwin and Qaladze on two separate occasions, as until 1996 the PDK had closer relations with Iran than the PUK, before Iran started supporting the PUK after they had allowed them to bombard Iranian Kurdish parties residing in Koya.