Militants kill 8 Iranian border guards near Turkish border

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Eight Iranian border guard members have been killed during clashes with militants near the border with Turkey, state TV reported Friday.

Iribnews.ir reported that the clashes took place near Chaldoran, some 865 kilometers (or 530 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran, in the country's West Azerbaijan province.

The report said that the Iranian border guards inflicted heavy casualties on the militants.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted Alireza Radfar, an official in West Azerbaijan province, as saying that authorities were not done hunting down militants in the region.

It did not elaborate on the affiliation of the militants.

The area near Turkey and Iraq's borders with Iran has previously been the scene of occasional skirmishes with Kurdish separatist groups as well as extremist Islamic rebels.

Earlier in October, Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard killed four militants in the area.