Two policemen were killed Saturday in Iran’s restive southeast, in an attack claimed by jihadists that left four assailants dead. This region, one of the poorest in Iran, is regularly shaken by violence linked to drug traffickers and rebel groups opposed to the Islamic Republic.
A grenade attack and gun battle in Iran’s southeast near Pakistan left four assailants and two Iranian policemen dead on Saturday, local media said.
It was the latest violence in Sistan-Baluchistan province, where unrest has involved drug smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.
In Zahedan, the Sistan-Baluchistan provincial capital, “four unidentified armed individuals attacked and entered police station Number 16,” state broadcaster IRIB reported, citing the province’s deputy head of security Alireza Marhamati.
The attackers used grenades to blast open the gates of the police station, and an exchange of fire occurred, said Marhamati.
The jihadist Jaish al-Adl group, which was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group, claimed responsibility, SITE Intelligence Group reported.
Tasnim news agency, quoting Sistan-Baluchistan police chief Doustali Jalilian, said two officers were killed in the clash.
All four “terrorists” involved were killed, according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA, quoting an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps branch that commands southeast Iran.
The targeted police station is located near Zahedan’s Makki Mosque, where last year thousands protested following the alleged rape of a teenage girl in custody in the port city of Chabahar.
In its statement reported by SITE, Jaish al-Adl accused security forces of targeting protesters during the September rallies, during which dozens of people including security forces were killed.
An unstable, marginalized province
Sistan-Baluchistan is one of Iran’s poorest provinces. It is home to the Baluchi minority who adhere to Sunni Islam rather than the Shiite branch predominant in Iran.
In May, five Iranian border guards were killed during clashes with an armed group in Saravan, southeast of Zahedan, in one of the province’s deadliest attacks in months.
State media reported at the time that the attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country” but whose members “fled the scene after suffering injuries”.
In late May, IRNA quoted a police official, Qassem Rezaee, as saying “Taliban forces” had shot at an Iranian police station in Sistan-Baluchistan, a drought-parched region which also borders Afghanistan. The two countries have been arguing over water rights.
Iranian police did not give details of casualties in that incident but local news agency Mehr reported one Iranian border guard had been killed. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said one person was killed on each side.
Malo Pinatel, with AFP
