Six dead in separatist attacks in southeast Iran

RIYADH: Six people including a local head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed on Tuesday in gun attacks by militant separatists in Iran’s restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.

Town council chief Parviz Kadkhodaei and two volunteer members of the Guards were also among the dead in the first attack at a school ceremony in the small town of Bent, about 1,350 kilometers southeast of Tehran. Two police officers were killed in the second attack in the town of Khash.

Both attacks were carried out by gunmen from Jaish Al-Adl, a militant group based in Pakistan that seeks greater rights for the ethnic Baloch minority.

Sistan-Baluchistan, one of Iran’s poorest regions, is mostly inhabited by the Baloch community. The province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan has long been plagued by unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi minority and militants.

In September, gunmen from Jaish Al-Adl killed four border guards in the province in two separate attacks.

In January Iran carried out a missile and drone strike against militant groups in Pakistan. Pakistan retaliated with strikes against militants in Iranian territory.

Pakistan’s Balochistan province also suffers from low-level insurgency waged by separatist militants against the government of Pakistan. These Pakistani Baloch separatist militant groups are allied with Iranian Baloch groups. Iran and Pakistan historically have a strategic alliance fighting these groups.