Iran's state TV said on Friday night eight border guards were killed in clashes with a group of militants in the country's northwestern Azarbaijan province that borders both Iraq and Turkey.

"At Least eight Iranian guards were killed in heavy clashes between Iran's border guards and a group of terrorists in the Chaldoran border area on Friday," said Alireza Radfar, the deputy governor general of the province.

"The terrorists sustained heavy losses during the clashes which are still ongoing on the border with Turkey."

The Chaldoran border, around 860 km (535 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran, is near neighbouring Turkey and Iraq's borders.