TEHRAN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Five Iranians, including four security forces, were killed and nine others injured when gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province on Thursday, a news agency reported.
"In this incident four security forces and a citizen were killed and five other police officers and four citizens were also injured," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted senior provincial official Ebrahim Kazeminejad as saying.
Kazeminejad blamed the "terrorist act" on "anti-revolutionary elements" and said it was carried out to create fear among people, Fars reported.
Kurdistan province, bordering Iraq, is the scene of frequent clashes between Kurdish guerrillas and Iranian security forces.
Like neighbouring Iraq and Turkey, Iran has a large Kurdish minority, mainly living in the country's northwest and west. Iran is a mainly Shi'ite Muslim country, but most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
A bombing during an annual military parade in the Kurdish city of Mahabad in September killed 12 people and injured 80. Iranian authorities blamed it on "anti-revolutionary" militants backed by the Islamic state's arch-foes the United States and Israel.
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