ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least six members of Iranian security forces were killed after a Sunni militant group attacked several military positions and offices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Sistan and Baluchestan province, southwest of the country, in the early hours of Thursday.
Majid Mirahmadi, Iranian deputy interior minister for security affairs, said that Jaish al-Adl had carried out simultaneous operations on an IRGC office in Chabahar and another in Rask, but stressed that the attacks “were foiled due to the alertness of security and law enforcement forces.”
At least six security personnel were killed and an additional 10 wounded in the attacks, according to Mirahmadi, who added that at least eight members of the militant group were also killed.
Jaish al-Adl said it had attacked four locations in Chabahar and two in Rask. The group is yet to announce the number of deaths among its ranks.
Mirahmadi claimed that a number of militants in Chabahar had taken refuge in a nearby building and also taken a citizen hostage.
Clashes are reportedly still underway in several parts of the province at the time of writing.
The attacks come days after airstrikes, blamed on Israel, hit the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing at least seven, including two IRGC generals.
Sistan and Baluchestan province, near the Pakistani border, is one of the only Sunni-majority provinces in the Shiite-dominated Iran. There are a number of Baluchi armed groups active in the area that carry out regular bombings and suicide attacks.
Jaish al-Adl, has carried out a number of suicide attacks on Iranian security forces, killing dozens in the border areas. The group was added to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 2019 by the administration of former US president Donald Trump.
The designation was in response to a deadly attack by the group on the IRGC, which killed 27 guards near Sistan and Baluchestan’s provincial capital of Zahedan.
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