Jihadist-claimed attacks on Iranian security personnel kill 5, according to state TV
Revolutionary Guard general says 15 attackers killed in ensuing clashes in Sistan-Baluchistan province near Pakistan border; Jaish al-Adl terror group takes responsibility
TEHRAN, Iran — At least five Iranian security personnel have been killed in two attacks claimed by a jihadist group in the country’s southeast near Pakistan, state media reported on Thursday.
The attacks occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has for years faced unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi minority, and Sunni Muslim extremists.
“Five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the police died as martyrs during two night-time terrorist attacks against a Guards base in Rask and a police post in Chabahar,” Majid Mirahmadi, vice-minister of the interior, told state TV.
General Mohammad Pakpour, who heads the Guards’ land forces, said on television that 15 attackers were killed during clashes with security forces.
Mirahmadi said more than 10 security force members were hurt during the clashes that began Wednesday evening.
The official IRNA news agency said the fighting erupted overnight in Sistan and Baluchistan province when gunmen opened fire on a Revolutionary Guard post in Rask town and a coastguard station in Chahbahar city, some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
Clashes are still ongoing between the Baloch Jish-Aldl and the occupying Iranian forces in Sarbaz.#Balochistan #Baloch #IranIsterroristCountry #Israeli pic.twitter.com/usrsYS1aA0
— Omar Baloch (@freemakoran) April 4, 2024
IRNA said that at one point six assailants were under siege and holding hostages at the two sites. It did not elaborate on the hostages, but it blamed the attacks on the terror group Jaish al-Adl, which allegedly seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority.
The Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice, in Arabic), claimed the attacks on its Telegram channel.
Based in Pakistan, the Sunni Muslim rebel organization, formed in 2012, is listed as a “terrorist” group by Iran and also by the United States.
Military helicopters from #Iran are currently observed flying over southern Sistan-Baluchistan, where there is ongoing confrontation between militants and Iranian forces. pic.twitter.com/pOxa1OVqOc
— Eagle Eye (@zarrar_11PK) April 4, 2024
Jaish al-Adl claimed an attack in December that killed 11 officers, one of the deadliest attacks in years, at a police station in Sistan-Baluchistan’s city of Rask.
The group claimed another police station attack in Rask that killed one officer on January 10.
A week later, Iran said it retaliated with missiles and drones against Jaish al-Adl over the border in Pakistan. Pakistan then said it carried out air strikes against ethnic separatists inside Iran.
The rare cross-border fire added to regional tensions during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, but by late January the two countries sought to ease tensions.
Impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan province, which also borders Afghanistan, is one of the few mainly Sunni provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran.
