TEHRAN: Local media reported on Saturday that a “terrorist attack” in a region of southeastern Iran long plagued by unrest resulted in the deaths of at least 10 police officers.
The Mehr and Tasnim news agencies reported that they were killed in an attack on “police vehicles” in the Taftan county of Sistan-Baluchistan province. The news agencies did not specify how the attack was carried out.
The attack, which took place approximately 1,200 kilometers southeast of Tehran, was not immediately attributed to any particular group.
Citing a statement from the police, the official IRNA news agency claimed that an ambush had resulted in the deaths of “10 personnel in two patrol units.”
Sistan-Baluchistan is one of the republic’s poorest provinces, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In contrast to the country’s majority Shia population, it is home to a large portion of the Baluch minority, an ethnic group from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who adhere to the Sunni sect.
Iranian security forces have frequently clashed with Baluch rebels, radical Sunni groups, and drug traffickers in the province. One of the most deadly attacks in the region in recent months was on Saturday.
At least six people, including police officers, were killed in two separate attacks in the province at the beginning of October.
In a Telegram message, Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice in Arabic, claimed responsibility for the two attacks.
The group, which was founded in 2012 by Baluch separatists, is regarded as a “terrorist organization” by Iran and the United States.
The most recent ambush took place in a region that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and has long been the scene of fights between drug traffickers and Iranian security forces and fighters.
