About 10 police officers were killed in a “terrorist attack” in southeastern Iran, an area historically affected by unrest, local media reported on Saturday. The officers died during an assault on police vehicles in Taftan county, Sistan-Baluchistan province, according to the Mehr and Tasnim news agencies, though details on how the attack was executed were not provided.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Tehran. The official IRNA news agency cited a police statement indicating that “10 personnel in two patrol units” were killed in what it described as an ambush.
Sistan-Baluchistan, which shares borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces and is home to a significant population of the Baluch minority. This ethnic group, which practices Sunni Islam, contrasts with Iran’s predominantly Shiite population. The province has seen ongoing conflicts involving Iranian security forces, Baluch rebels, radical Sunni groups, and drug traffickers.
Saturday’s incident marks one of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent months. Earlier in October, at least six people, including police officers, were killed in two separate assaults. The Pakistan-based Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for those attacks via a message on Telegram, is viewed as a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
Iran and Pakistan frequently accuse each other of permitting rebel groups to operate and launch attacks from their territories. In mid-January, Iran conducted a strike in Pakistan targeting the Jaish al-Adl headquarters, according to the Mehr agency. The group, which describes its members as “soldiers of Allah,” regularly advocates for “armed jihad” against the Islamic republic.
