Kurdish armed groups have stepped up attacks against Iranian security forces, adding a new point of tension as the United States and Iran pursue a peace agreement after last month's memorandum of understanding.
Newsweek reported that Iran's Revolutionary Guard said two of its members were killed in what it called a "terrorist and cowardly act" in the western city of Paveh in Kermanshah province.
The Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported the attack was claimed by a newly formed Kurdish group known as Xori Hiwa, or "Sun of Hope."
The Revolutionary Guard also announced a separate counterterrorism operation in neighboring West Azerbaijan province, saying it had destroyed a six-member team that entered Iran.
The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK, said four of its fighters were killed in clashes near the city of Mahabad.
The latest fighting follows several days of reported clashes between Iranian security forces and Kurdish groups near the Iraqi border.
Iranian media have linked the renewed violence to earlier reports of a possible Israeli-backed Kurdish offensive that never materialized during the recent conflict involving the United States and Israel.
Henri Barkey, a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Kurdish groups now pose only a limited threat to Tehran.
"The danger Kurds pose is down the road and in the event that unrest, as we saw early in the year, were to spread nationally, forcing the dispersal of internal security forces," Barkey told Newsweek. "Then, Kurds can 'liberate' selective cities, giving impetus to the uprising."
The renewed clashes also come after Kurdish representatives publicly acknowledged that their long-term political goals differ from the objectives driving U.S. negotiations with Iran.
"With all due respect to American objectives there, I think our objectives and our struggle for changing the foundation of governance within Iran has been different than the objective of the external forces there," Hejar Berenji, U.S. representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, told Newsweek.
Mohammed Salih, a nonresident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute's National Security Program, said the latest violence appears tied to increased government pressure on Kurdish opposition groups.
"The current clashes between some Kurdish forces and Iranian security forces appear to have been triggered by the regime's intensified security pressure on Kurdish opposition groups," Salih told Newsweek.
Salih said the fighting is unlikely to threaten Iran's government but could lead to tighter security measures in Kurdish areas and increased pressure on Iraqi authorities to expel Iranian Kurdish opposition groups from their territory.
President Donald Trump has continued pursuing diplomacy while keeping military options against Iran on the table.
Trump had several conversations recently with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on whether the U.S. should abandon negotiations with Iran and resume military strikes, according to unnamed administration sources.
According to the sources, some described the option as "finishing the job."