ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Unidentified gunmen attacked a checkpoint in southeast Iran on Thursday morning, killing one police officer as the region has continues experiencing clashes between Baluchi militants and security forces.
“Following an armed attack on a checkpoint in the city of Rask, First Sergeant Alireza Sanchouli, a police officer, was killed,” Iranian state media said Thursday, without providing further details about the attack.
Haalvsh, a human rights organisation monitoring developments in Baluchi areas, published a photo of the officer and said the officer was from Zabol.
The attack came on the fourth anniversary of Bloody Friday, when more than 100 Baluchi protesters, including children, women and elderly people, were killed in Zahedan during an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) crackdown.
The massacre of the Baluchi protesters was part of the crackdown ordered by Supreme leader Ali Khamenei following the outbreak of the anti-government protest in September 2022 when “morality police” in Tehran killed a Kurdish woman, Zhina (Mahsa), Amini for allegedly wearing a loose hijab.
The IRGC, which has ruled the Baluchestan region with an iron grip, has in recent months faced frequent unrest in these areas as the country has been engaged in an existential war with the US and Israel.
The checkpoint attack followed several clashes in recent weeks across the Baluchestan region in which security personnel and members of Baluchi armed groups have been killed.
On Thursday, September 24, serious clashes erupted in Zahedan between security forces and members of the Baluchi coalition group known as the People’s Fighters Front, during which two senior IRGC commanders were killed.
IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Zarifi, commander of the Shahid Sajjad Operational Base in Saravan, and Ahmad Herati Zera’ati, the base’s intelligence chief, were among those killed in the fighting, while at least 13 others were wounded. Four armed men were also killed, according to IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News.
Tasnim, citing a statement from the Quds Regional Base of the IRGC Ground Force, confirmed Zarifi’s death and said he was killed while confronting what it described as “the enemy’s mercenary terrorists.”
Baluchestan, in southeast Iran, is one of the country’s most impoverished regions. The IRGC plays a dominant role in security affairs, while large numbers of Baluchi civilians are executed each year on charges ranging from political and security offences to drug-related crimes.
