TEHRAN: An Iranian news agency is reporting that the pilot and co-pilot of a police helicopter have been killed in a crash in southeast Iran.

The report by the semiofficial Fars agency says the helicopter crashed midday Friday noon after it hit a telecommunications tower. The craft was scheduled to land at the southeastern Iranian town of Khash in Sistan-Baluchistan province.

The report said the tower was located on a base of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

The area has been a scene of frequent clashes between Iranian forces and drug dealers as well as a Sunni insurgent group, Jundallah, which has waged a long insurgency in the remote province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.