TEHRAN: A member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a Basij militia fighter have been killed in a clash with a “terrorist group” in the country’s southeast, state media reported on Sunday.

The firefight took place late on Saturday in Saravan county of Sistan-Baluchistan province, which straddles the border with Pakistan, said the official IRNA news agency.

The two dead were identified as Guards commando Mohsen Naghibi and local Basij member Abdolkhalegh Derazehi.

The Revolutionary Guard is an elite paramilitary group that is larger than the regular armed forces and answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.

Sistan-Baluchistan has long been a flashpoint, where Baluch separatists and jihadists carry out cross-border raids.

The jihadist outfit Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”) has in the past attacked and abducted Iranian security personnel.

The most recent attack killed 27 Guards in a February 13 suicide bombing which targeted a busload of the unit in the volatile region.

Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 as a successor to the Sunni extremist group Jundallah (Soldiers of God), which waged a deadly insurgency for a decade before it was severely weakened by the capture and execution of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010.Iranian state TV said gunmen killed two security personnel and wounded another two near the border with Pakistan.

State TV blamed the attack on “terrorists” without elaborating. The southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province has been the scene of past clashes involving militants and drug smugglers.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2019