Iran Announces 13 Militants Killed in Raids Across Restive Southeast Province

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Wednesday that its forces had killed 13 alleged militants and arrested several others in a series of coordinated security operations across the restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, with state media linking some of those targeted to a recent deadly ambush that killed five police officers. 

The raids, described as three joint operations, underscore the persistent and often deadly conflict between Iranian security forces and armed groups in one of the country's most volatile regions.

According to a statement from the public relations department of the Revolutionary Guards carried by state television, the operations were carried out on Wednesday morning in the cities of Iranshahr, Khash, and Saravan.

The statement noted the participation of intelligence and internal security forces in the raids, which resulted in the killing of a group of armed men described as "terrorists" and the arrest of several others.

Reinforcing the official position on such security actions, Brigadier General Qasem Rezaei, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Iran's internal security forces, stressed that border guard forces are continuing their monitoring and that "no operation is carried out without precise information."

The broadcaster explicitly stated that some of those killed in Wednesday's operations were suspected of being behind an ambush reported last Friday in which five policemen were killed in Iranshahr. The Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) later claimed responsibility for that attack in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The incident is part of a recurring pattern of violence in the province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long been a flashpoint for clashes between security forces and various armed groups, including those identified by Tehran as separatists, as well as drug traffickers.

Sistan and Baluchestan, home to a large Sunni Muslim Baluch community in the Shiite-majority nation, is recognized as one of the poorest regions of Iran.

Clashes in the area are frequent, and Iranian authorities regularly report deadly attacks targeting police or the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country's military. Authorities in Tehran typically blame Sunni militant groups, including Jaish al-Adl, for such assaults.

The latest raids are part of an intensified series of security incidents in the province. Earlier this month, according to Tasnim News Agency, four people were killed while attempting to attack a police station in Saravan.

The agency reported that a police officer was also killed in the incident and attributed the attack to Jaish al-Adl. This followed another raid on Saturday in which Iranian forces killed six militants in the province, with authorities claiming the individuals were members of a group linked to Israel.