DUBAI (Reuters) – Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed at least five Iranian security forces in two separate “terrorist” attacks on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards headquarters in the country’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, state media reported on Thursday.
At least 15 militants were killed in overnight clashes between the militants from the Jaish al-Adl group and security forces in the Iranian towns of Chabahar and Rask in the impoverished province, state TV said.
“The terrorists failed to succeed achieving their goal of seizing the Guards headquarters in Chabahar and Rask,” deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state TV.
State TV said 10 other security officers were also injured in the clashes in the area, which has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population.
An extremist Sunni Muslim militant group, Jaish al-Adl says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis in Shi’ite dominated Iran. It has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent years on Iranian security forces in the country’s southeastern province.
The area, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has long been the site of frequent clashes between Iranian security forces and Sunni militants, as well as well-armed drug traffickers and Iranian security forces.
Iran is a key transit route for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan to the West and elsewhere.
In December, the militant group attacked a police station in the town of Rask, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others.
In January, Iran targeted two bases of the militant group in Pakistan with missiles, prompting a rapid military riposte from Islamabad targeting what it said were separatist militants in Iran.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Devika Syamnath)
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