TEHRAN – Three “terrorists” and three members of the Iranian securityforces were killed during night-time clashes along Iran’s border withPakistan, state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday.
“At 0130 this morning (2100 GMT Monday], a terrorist group from Pakistanattacked” a police post in the border area of Mirjaveh, around 75kilometres southeast of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistanprovince, IRNA said.
Three of the attackers were killed along with a police officer and twomembers of the Revolutionary Guards, it added.
Iran has criticised Pakistan in the past for supporting the Jaish al-Adljihadist group, which it accuses of ties to Al-Qaeda and carrying outnumerous attacks in Sistan-Baluchistan.
The restive province is poor and home to a population that is predominantlySunni and ethnic Baluchi, in a country where 90 percent are Shiite andtwo-thirds are Persian.
From 2005 to 2010, Sistan-Baluchistan suffered a prolonged insurgency bythe Balochi-Sunni jihadist group Jundallah, meaning “soldiers of Allah”,although violence was largely curbed after the killing of its leader inmid-2010. – APP