TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they killed six “armed bandits” in a shootout in the country’s southeast that also left three members of a Guards-linked paramilitary force dead.

The latest clashes in Sistan-Baluchestan broke out around a hideout of militants near a village in the centre of the province, the Guards said late on Saturday on their Sepah News website.

Sistan-Baluchestan, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a flashpoint for clashes with smuggling gangs as well as separatists from the Baluchi minority and extremist militant groups.

“Six bandits were killed and five others wounded,” the Sepah News report said, while three members of the Basij, a paramilitary force linked to the Guards, also died. No arrests were announced.

Clashes broke out near a village in Sistan-Baluchestan, say Revolutionary Guards

On Friday, the Guards said they had “targeted and killed the perpetrators” behind an attack that left two of their members dead on December 25 in the same province.

On November 18, three police, including a colonel, were killed and six wounded in fighting with an armed group in an area bordering Sistan-Baluchestan.

In recent years, the most active rebel group in Sistan-Baluchestan has been the jihadist outfit Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which has carried out several high-profile bombings and abductions.

In February 2019, 27 Guards were killed in a suicide attack on their bus.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2022