No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Iranian media blame Jaish al-Adl militant group
AA
At least three simultaneous attacks have been reported on military bases and police stations in southeastern Iran's restive Sistan and Baluchistan province on Wednesday.
Iran's state-run news agency IRNA, citing sources, said three “terrorist operations” were carried out simultaneously late Wednesday targeting a police station and two army headquarters in the capital Chabahar and the city of Rask.
The report said at least three armed assailants had been wounded and one other killed in the operation carried out by the police. The hunt for other perpetrators continues.
The IRNA report did not mention any police casualties in the attacks, but local sources say many casualties are feared.
IRNA and other Iranian media outlets quoted the deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province as saying that an attempt to enter the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Rask had been foiled.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but sections of Iranian media blamed it on Jaish al-Adl, a militant group based in the border region between Iran and Pakistan.
Jaish al-Adl is an Iranian militant group that is believed to have bases in the border region of Pakistan and has claimed responsibility for many terrorist attacks in Sistan and Baluchestan province in recent years.
Wednesday's incident comes less than three months after the IRGC launched a barrage of missiles at Pakistan's Balochistan province, allegedly targeting the headquarters of the militant group.
It was followed by a Pakistani missile strike on a village in Iran's border province, leading to the escalation of tensions between the two neighbours.
At the same time, channels close to the separatist group Jaish al-Zalm, in an unusual move, distributed similar texts in a coordinated and simultaneous manner to make the public aware of the incident.
The deputy of security and law enforcement of Sistan and Baluchistan governorate confirmed the terrorist attack on the Rask and Chabahar military headquarters and said the situation is now under control.
Iran: At Least 29 Dead In Clashes Between Militants, Security Forces In Southeast
A screenshot from video of deadly violence in Chabahar, Iran on April 4.
Photo Credit: RFE/RL
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — More than two dozen Iranian government forces and militants from Jaish al-Adl, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Iran and several Western countries including the United States, have been killed in clashes in the southeast of the country in a flareup of violence in the underprivileged province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
Law enforcement officials told local media that the clashes lasted nearly 14 hours, leaving left 11 government troops and 18 militants dead in the cities of Rask, Sarbaz, and Chabahar. The deputy security minister of the Interior Ministry confirmed the deaths and injuries of security personnel and said the number of fatalities could potentially rise on both sides.
Alireza Daliri, the deputy law enforcement commander in Sistan-Baluchistan, said the militants had also precipitated a hostage-taking situation, but that it had ended with “all” of the attackers being killed. It was not clear whether those casualties were part of the numbers law enforcement had quoted earlier.
Jaish al-Adl, which ostensibly seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority, operates mostly in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province but is also suspected to be in neighboring Pakistan.
In an assault by the militants on the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and police military bases in Rask and Chabahar, at least five security personnel were killed, according to security reports. The state-run news agency IRNA said the casualties included a soldier, an IRGC member, a Basij paramilitary member, and two law enforcement officers.
IRGC ground forces Commander Mohammad Pakpour said the attackers targeted several locations in simultaneous operations.
This deadly incident is the latest significant confrontation between Iranian forces and Jaish al-Adl, following the group’s claimed attack on a police station in Rask on January 20, which resulted in one law enforcement fatality.
Members of the Baluch minority, many of whom are Sunni Muslims in Shi’a-majority Iran, have long faced disproportionate discrimination and violence at the hands of the authorities.
The area, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has also long been a key transit route for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan to the West and beyond.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda
Jaish Al-Adl group reportedly claimed responsibility for 3 attacks in Sistan, Baluchestan province, security officials say all hostages taken by militants freed
Syed Zafar Mahdi |04.04.2024
TEHRAN, Iran
Eleven security personnel and 15 militants were killed in overnight clashes in southeastern Iran, authorities announced on Thursday.
In the course of a military operation to free several hostages taken by the Jaish al-Adl militant group in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, two border guards, two police officers, and seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel were killed, reported state-run news agency IRNA, citing local security officials.
The clashes erupted in the cities of Chabahar and Rask after three simultaneous militant attacks were reported on a police station and two military bases, including one belonging to the IRGC in the province bordering Pakistan.
Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of IRGC's ground forces, told state TV said the "terrorist attacks" were carried out in several places in a coordinated manner and the perpetrators had operated as a group.
He said security personnel faced problems as the militants had taken several hostages in the provincial capital of Chabahar, adding that these were eventually released.
Majid Mirahmadi, the deputy interior minister for security affairs, told state TV that the militants had "failed" to seize control of the IRGC headquarters in Chabahar and Rask.
The Jaish al-Adl militant group, which is believed to have bases near the border with Pakistan, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The group has in the past claimed responsibility for many attacks in the Sistan and Baluchestan province in recent years.
The last incident comes less than three months after IRGC launched a barrage of missiles at Pakistan’s Balochistan province in January, allegedly targeting the headquarters of the militant group.
It was followed by a Pakistani missile strike on a village in Iran’s border province, leading to the escalation of tensions between the two neighbors.
Casualties as armed assailants carry out simultaneous attacks on a police station and two army bases in provincial capital Chabahar and Rask city, local media and officials say.
Sistan-Baluchestan is located on the border with Pakistan in the southeast of the country.
Three security personnel, including the deputy of a police station, have been killed in "terrorist attacks" in Iran, state media reported, two days after seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards were killed in an Israeli air raid in Syria.
"Three security members have been martyred in several night-time terrorist attacks on military stations in the cities of Rask and Chabahar" in southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province, told state TV.
"In one of the attacks on police station number 11 of the city of Chabahar, deputy of the station Abbas Mir, was martyred," state broadcaster IRIB said, adding that a number of assailants were also killed or injured.
It also said that Jaish al Adl militant group, which was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a "terrorist" group, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The attacks came less than 48 hours after an air strike on the Iranian consular annex in Damascus killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
"The terrorists did not succeed in their goal of capturing the Guards headquarters in Chabahar and Rask and are under siege," Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state TV.
"The terrorists are stationed around these headquarters and are shooting blindly, with the courageous members of the Guards and the police are confronting them," he added.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], the ideological arm of Iran's military, has numerous stations in Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Jaish al Adl, or the Army of Justice, that mainly comprises members of the banned militant Jundullah group, claims that it "defends the rights of the Sunni Baluch people", and occasionally organises attacks against Iran in the Sistan-Baluchestan province.
No comments:
Post a Comment