TEHRAN: An Iranian official says an al Qaeda affiliated group has killed one of five Iranian border guards it recently kidnapped.

Ali Asghar Mirshekari, a deputy provincial governor for security affairs in Sistan-Balochistan, was quoted Monday by the official IRNA news agency as saying that the only officer among the captives was killed.

The other 4 were conscripts doing their 2-year compulsory military service.

They were kidnapped by the Jaish al-Adl militant group last month outside Sarbaz, a town near Iran's border with Pakistan.

They had demanded release of its members jailed in Iran and the release of al Qaeda-linked rebels arrested in Syria.

Jaish al-Adl supports rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.