TEHRAN: Six Iranian border guards were killed on Sunday during skirmishes with an armed group in the unrest-ridden region of Sistan-Baluchistan in the country’s southeast, according to local media.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported local prosecutor Mehdi Shamsabadi as saying that the guards were killed in Saravan, close to Iran’s border with Pakistan.
Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, has seen confrontations with drug trafficking gangs, Baluchi rebels, and extremist organisations.
“A terrorist gang that was trying to infiltrate into the country carried out the attack on Sunday but “fled across the border after the clash,” the Fars news agency quoted Mehdi Shamsabadi as saying.
This was one of the bloodiest assaults in the province in recent months.
During clashes with “criminals” in the same area on March 11, two Iranian officers were fatally shot, state news agency IRNA reported at that time.
