At least 10 police officers were killed in a “terrorist attack” in a region of south-eastern Iran long hit by unrest, local media reported on Saturday.
Mehr and Tasnim news agencies reported that they were killed during an attack on “police vehicles” in Taftan County, Sistan-Baluchestan province, without specifying how it was carried out.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
The official IRNA news agency, citing a police statement, reported the deaths of “10 personnel in two patrol units”, which it described as an ambush.
Sistan-Baluchistan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and is one of the poorest provinces in the Islamic Republic.
It is home to a large Baluch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who practice Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shia population.
The province sees frequent clashes between Iranian security forces and Baloch minority insurgents, fundamentalist Sunni groups and drug traffickers.
Saturday’s attack was one of the deadliest in the region in recent months.
In early October, at least six people, including police officers, were killed in two separate attacks in the province.
Pakistan-based Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl – Army of Justice in Arabic – claimed responsibility for the two attacks in a message on Telegram.
The group, formed in 2012 by Baloch separatists, is considered a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
Iran and Pakistan often accuse each other of allowing insurgent groups to operate and launch attacks from their respective territories.
According to Mehr Agency, in mid-January, Iran carried out an attack in Pakistan and targeted the Jaish al-Adl headquarters.
Describing themselves as “Soldiers of Allah”, the group’s members regularly call for “armed jihad” against the Islamic Republic.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
