An Iranian police officer was killed and two others injured in an armed attack in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, local police said on Friday.
According to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, a group of gunmen in a sedan opened fire at a patrol unit in the city of Saravan late on Thursday, leaving several injured.
Mehr cited a statement by the Sistan and Baluchistan police as saying that one of the officers, identified as Capt. Ali Motahari, later succumbed to his injuries.
The police said a search operation was launched to find the perpetrators of what it described as a “brazen attack.” The operation is still ongoing.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet, Sistan and Baluchistan province has been the scene of several similar attacks against security forces claimed by the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl.
In April, several armed men belonging to Jaish al-Adl launched two simultaneous attacks on a law enforcement headquarters in Chabahar and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base in the provincial city of Rask.
Heavy clashes between the militants and security forces erupted at the time, leaving at least 11 security personnel dead, including seven members of the IRGC and the Basij paramilitary forces.
In January, one police officer was killed in an attack by Jaish al-Adl on a police station near Rask. Earlier in December, the group claimed responsibility for a shooting at another police station in Rask that killed 11 Iranian security personnel.
Sistan and Baluchistan province is part of the Baluchistan region, which extends into Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. In Iran, the ethnic Baluch community has suffered years of repression and marginalization under Iran’s successive Shiite regimes.
Jaish al-Adl, which is made up of Baluchis fighting for the province’s independence from Iran, is believed to operate from bases inside Pakistan.
On Jan. 16, the IRGC struck sites belonging to Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s Balochistan province using missiles and drones. Pakistani authorities said the attack killed two children.
Two days later, the Pakistani army said it launched precision strikes on bases used by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army and the Baluchistan Liberation Front inside Sistan and Baluchistan province in Iranian territory.
