Five Iranian police killed in ambush in Sistan-Baluchistan

TEHRAN: At least five Iranian police have been killed in an ambush near the town of Iranshahr in Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media reported on Friday.

The unidentified assailants struck two units on patrol near the town of Iranshahr, the Fars news agency said, citing local police.

“In this terrorist act, five servants of security and peace were martyred,” it quoted police as saying.

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Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long been a flashpoint for clashes between security forces and armed groups, including drug traffickers and separatists.

The province, which is home to a large Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, is one of the poorest regions of the Shiite-majority country.

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Police said the officers had been on routine patrol when they came under fire. Iranian media published an image of a bullet-riddled police pickup with bodies lying on the ground nearby.

An operation was underway to “track down and identify” the assailants, Fars said.

Later, the Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) claimed responsibility for the attack, in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Iran regularly reports deadly ambushes in the province targeting police or members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Authorities blame Sunni militant groups, including Jaish al-Adl, for such attacks.

The latest attack comes after authorities said the security forces had killed seven members of another armed group, Ansar al-Furqan, last week as they foiled an attempted attack.

A day earlier, a police officer was killed in an attack later claimed by Jaish al-Adl.

In April this year, eight Pakistanis were killed in the Mehrestan County of Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders Pakistan.

Militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both regions are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.