( CNN ) -- Iranian forces have launched a fresh offensive against Kurdish rebels , with a senior military commander telling a state-run news agency Saturday that 30 rebels were killed or injured in the operation . Col. Hamid Ahmad , with the Iran 's elite Revolutionary Guards corps , told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that the effort began Friday afternoon in the northwest part of the Middle Eastern nation in an area bordering Iraq . He described the mission as ongoing . `` The major operation against ( Party of Free Life of Kurdistan , or PJAK ) agents in the northwest borders will continue until the purification of the region from terrorists , '' Ahmad said . It was not clear in the state-run news agency report whether the rebels crossed from Iraq into Iran . Iranian forces have repeatedly shelled the border area between Iran and Iraq 's autonomous Kurdish region , targeting Kurdish rebels who say they want their own independent country . Blaming PJAK for violating a ceasefire , Ahmad said that two Kurds who were protecting the group 's members had been killed in the latest offensive . Revolutionary Guard troops also `` killed , injured and arrested tens of terrorists '' and destroyed a rebel camp near the city of Sardasht , the news agency reported . Sardasht is a predominately Kurdish town that sits on the Iran-Iraq border . The military operation includes about 5,000 Iranian troops in the northwest part of the country , and comes two months after Iranian forces reportedly captured `` several teams of PJAK ( members ) who intended to infiltrate Iran to stage terrorist operations , '' claims IRNA . Like Turkey and Iraq , Iranian forces have had repeated battles with ethnic Kurdish fighters . The PJAK group is part of an alliance of Kurdish rebel groups that includes the Kurdistan Workers ' Party , or PKK , which conducts attacks against Turkey from northern Iraq . This group is considered a terror group by the United States , though the IRNA report claims that Iranian officials repeatedly have complained such Kurdish rebels are being supported by Washington .
A Revolutionary Guard commander tells IRNA an operation was launched Friday . `` Tens of terrorists '' were killed , injured or arrested in northwest Iran , he says . The Iranian military said it had carried out a "precision operation" against the Islamic Republic's elite Quds Force and its allies to prevent them from carrying out attacks inside Iran.