Six Iranian border guards were killed Sunday during clashes with an armed group in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, local media reported. The guards were killed in Saravan, near Iran’s border with Pakistan, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website quoted local prosecutor Mehdi Shamsabadi as saying. Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.
Sunday’s attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country” but “fled across the border after the clash”, Fars news agency reported. State TV originally reported that six guards were killed but later said there were five fatalities. Two border guards were also wounded in the clash. It did not blame the attack on any group and no group immediately claimed responsibility. There were no additional details. The area is one of the least developed parts of Iran. The relationship between the predominantly Sunni residents of the region and Iran’s Shiite theocracy has long been fraught.
On Thursday, the top leaders of Pakistan and Iran inaugurated the first border market as relations warm between the two countries.
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