Balochi group kills at least five IRGC guards, abducts three more in southeast Iran

ERBIL Kurdistan Region — A Balochi jihadist group claims to have killed and captured a number of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday in Saravan in southeast Iran, a week after IRGC members killed at least ten fuel traders in the same area.

A Telegram channel affiliated with the Jaish al-Adl (Justice Army) group, a Balochi jihadist group, claimed on Tuesday that its fighters “successfully targeted two IRGC vehicles” in the town of Bampasht several hours earlier. 

The group did not say how many guards were killed but other outlets monitoring events in Sistan and Baluchestan province said at least five guards were killed and three others were taken prisoner.

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported the incident and said an IRGC engineering unit was targeted at lunchtime on Tuesday.

“In this terrorist attack, one of the IRGC engineers was wounded and another one is unaccounted for,” the Guards’ outlet quoted the IRGC’s provincial public relations department as saying.

The IRGC killed at least ten Balochi fuel traders on February 22 sparking several days of widespread protests that saw more people killed, including a child. Dozens more were wounded and arrested.

A number of wounded protesters were taken away from their hospital beds by security forces, according to Baloch Campaign, a human rights group reporting about violations in the province. The IRGC denied involvement, claiming Pakistani border guards killed the fuel traders.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for a “transparent and impartial investigation” into the incident.

Human rights violations in Baloch areas often go unnoticed by both domestic and foreign media, as access to the province is highly restricted and its people fear talking to foreign reporters.

Jaish al-Adl has carried out a number of suicide attacks on Iranian security forces, killing dozens in the border area. The administration of former US president Donald Trump added the group to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations in July 2019,  five months after the group carried out a deadly suicide attack on the IRGC.

The attack killed 27 guards near the Sistan and Baluchestan’s provincial capital of Zahedan.