War Against Kurds Goes On, Iran Says

TEHRAN — A leading Iranian official acknowledged Sunday that fighting continues against Kurdish guerrillas seeking autonomy in the Kurdistan region of northwestern Iran.

Referring to guerrilla activity in the area, Iran’s Speaker of Parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, told a security force leaving for Kurdistan that it would come face to face with “the worst enemies of Islam.”

Tehran authorities said last year that they had broken the back of the Kurdish rebellion. Earlier this month, the strategic highway from Sanandaj to Kamyaran was declared open to traffic 24 hours a day for the first time in five years, after what the military described as an unabated struggle against counterrevolutionaries.