“So far, 13 terrorists have been killed and a number of others arrested,” the IRGC said, as cited by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, adding that the operations took place in the cities of Iranshahr, Khash, and Saravan.
Police spokesperson Saeed Montazeralmahdi said the attackers were behind a Friday ambush on an Iranshahr police station that killed five policemen.
Jaish al-Adl (Justice Army), a Baluchi Sunni jihadist group operating across the restive, sparsely-populated border regions, claimed responsibility for the Friday attack.
Sistan and Baluchestan province, near the Pakistani border, is one of the only Sunni-majority provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran. There are a number of Baluchi armed groups active in the area that carry out regular bombings and suicide attacks.
Attacks on Iranian security forces in Sistan and Baluchestan are frequent. Armed Baluchi groups, such as Jaish al-Adl, operate in the province that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have waged an insurgency against Tehran and carried out numerous attacks against its forces, especially the IRGC.
Jaish al-Adl was added to the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 2019 by the first administration of President Donald Trump. The designation was in response to a deadly attack by the group that killed 27 IRGC members near Sistan and Baluchestan’s provincial capital of Zahedan.
Baluchis are a mainly Sunni ethnic minority in Iran, living predominantly in the Baluchestan region near the border with Pakistan. The population was active during nationwide protests in September 2022, and hundreds of Baluchis were killed by the IRGC in a heavy crackdown.
On Sunday, Iranian forces killed six militants in Sistan and Baluchestan, with state media saying they were members of a “terrorist” group linked to Israel.
