The eruption of the conflict in July 1989 was caused by the assassination of KDPI leader Abdul Rahman Qassemlou by suspected Iranian government agents.

The conflict faded with the effective targeted assassination policy of Iran and by 1996 KDPI was no longer able to function militarily and announced a unilateral ceasefire.

As the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fought to re-establish government control in the Kurdish regions, more than 10,000 Kurds were killed during this process.

Pockets of KDPI insurgents continued to engage in low level fighting up until 1983,[3] as the Iranian forces were diverted to the Iraqi front, with the escalation of the Iran–Iraq War.

Nevertheless, the crackdown still continued—'Abd al-Rahman Qassemlou, leader of Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, was assassinated in July 1989 by the Iranian government.

[4] The immediate pretext for the renewed insurgency of KDPI was the event of February 1990, when thousands of Kurds demonstrated in seven Iranian towns and more than 500 were subsequently arrested.

Abdul Rahman Ghassmlou, leader of the KDPI, was assassinated by suspected Iranian intelligence agents in Vienna, Austria on July 13, 1989.

[5] In November 1990, Iranian security arrests a Kurdish soldier accused of allegedly killing two revolutionary guards in summer attacks.

[5] KDPI guerrillas also set fire to an exhibition of industrial machinery and briefly take policemen hostage in the town of Mahabad in retaliation because of Iranian terrorist attacks.

[5] This and other incidents make both the UN and Amnesty International accuse the Iranian government of the political assassination of members of its Kurdish opposition.

[5] On January 7, 1994, a prominent member of the KDPI is assassinated by gunmen believed to be affiliated with Iranian security forces.

[5] On July 10, Iranian agents exploded a car-bomb near a housing complex amidst the main concentration of KDPI refugee camps in northern Iraq.

In April 1997, improved relations between Tehran and Ankara led to the deportation from Turkey to northern Iraq over 70 KDPI members.

[10] It was unclear whether this was a result of change of policy by the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (which evaded violence since 1996) or an isolated sequence of incidents.

On August 23, 1996, former president of Iran Abolhassan Banisadr stated that during the previous 15 years, the Iranian government ordered the killings of over 60 dissidents, including 4 KDPI leaders in Germany in 1992.