At least two Iranian security personnel have been killed in separate attacks along the country’s eastern border with Pakistan, adding to a run of incidents near the key Chabahar port in recent weeks. According to reports from Iranian news agencies, the killings took place on Wednesday.
An officer commanding a women’s unit in the Basij paramilitary force, which is part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was shot dead outside her home in the Mehrestan district of Sistan-Baluchestan province. In a separate attack, another officer was killed in an assault on a police vehicle in Mehrestan, an area close to the Pakistani frontier.
Violence spreads across Sistan-Baluchestan province
Haalvash, a rights group that focuses on the Baluch ethnic minority in the province, said military helicopters were circling over the city of Iranshahr on Wednesday. It added that the security situation remained tense in several locations.
Iran’s government describes groups behind many recent attacks in the region as “terrorist outfits” that are funded and supported from outside the country. The province is home to Chabahar port on the eastern flank, where US forces carried out air strikes on infrastructure and naval control facilities in July.
Police and security convoys targeted in recent attacks
Last week, gunmen killed one person and wounded three others while attacking a minibus carrying security personnel from a division stationed along the Makran coast, according to the state news agency IRNA. In a separate incident, the agency reported that “several terrorists” killed a police officer after attacking a convoy patrolling the area.
IRGC operation near Chabahar targets alleged militant cell
Earlier this month, the IRGC’s Al Quds Force said it had killed at least two suspected attackers and destroyed an alleged “terrorist cell” in an operation near Chabahar port. The force said the operation followed the killing of a member of Iran’s security forces at a checkpoint near the city of Rasak.
The IRGC also said it had recovered a Starlink device and a large quantity of weapons from the group’s mountainous hideout.
