TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Six military personnel of Iranian security forces were killed in a helicopter crash near the border with northern Iraq, the state-run media reported on Saturday.

    According to the official IRNA news agency, the Friday's accident happened near Piranshahr, a town lies in West Azarbaijan province and around 10 km from the Iraqi border.

    "The aircraft was transporting troops and equipment during a maneuver operation and crashed due to a technical problem and bad weather," IRNA reported, adding that five other were also injured.

    But the semi-official Mehr news agency said the plane crashed during a Revolutionary Guards' military operation against the Kurdish rebel group Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian branch of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey.

    Mehr also said the accident was due to bad weather and technical problems, adding the operation has caused damages to PJAK in the past several days.

    Iran's West Azarbaijan province borders Turkey and Iraq, where Iranian forces usually clashed with some Kurdish guerillas who were outlawed by Turkish government in the past years.

    In February 14 Iranian military personnel, including two Revolutionary Guards commanders, were also killed in a helicopter crash during an operation against the guerillas.

    Tehran has described the rebels as "mercenary elements", and has repeatedly accused the U.S. and Britain of trying to make convulsions in the country's bordering areas with Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.