ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - One person was killed and two others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a vehicle in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province on Monday evening, with a Baluch rights monitor and Iranian authorities giving conflicting accounts of whether the victims were security personnel or civilians.
Baluch rights group Haalvsh said unidentified gunmen targeted a Peugeot 207 carrying three alleged plainclothes members of the Jakigur Border Regiment on the Jakigur-Rask road, near the entrance to Jakigur Bridge in Rask County.
The group, citing eyewitnesses and local sources, said the three men were armed and traveling in a private vehicle when they came under fire.
Haalvsh identified the occupants as Morteza Sayadi, Hamed Sayadi and Morteza Bazi, saying all three were taken to Rask hospital, where one later died from his injuries.
Iranian state and state-affiliated media gave a different account, describing the occupants as civilians and denying that they were members of the security forces.
Iranian police said Jaish al-Adl had attacked a vehicle carrying “ordinary citizens” in the Jakigur Bridge area, describing the shooting as an attack on civilians.
State-affiliated Nour News identified the person killed as Reza Bazi, rather than Morteza Bazi, and named Morteza Sayadi and Hamed Sayadi as the two wounded men.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Tasnim news agency also blamed Jaish al-Adl for the attack and described the occupants as civilians, saying the group had turned to attacking ordinary people after recent setbacks against Iranian security forces.
A wounded man shown in a video published by state-affiliated media also denied belonging to the military or security forces.
“We are not military at all,” he said, explaining that they had unloaded vehicles at the border and were traveling when the shooting began.
He said they had stopped in Jakigur to buy unsubsidized fuel before continuing toward the bridge, where they suddenly heard gunfire.
The shooting was the second deadly attack reported in Sistan-Baluchestan on Monday.
Earlier in the day, two Iranian police officers were killed and another wounded when gunmen opened fire on a patrol from the Nokju police station on the Bampur-Iranshahr road, according to provincial police. No group immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.
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The incidents come amid a recent rise in attacks and security operations across the province involving police, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel and Baluch armed groups.
On Tuesday, Sistan-Baluchestan police chief Mohammadreza Eshaghi said authorities had seized more than 2,500 illegal weapons in the province, although he did not specify the period over which they had been confiscated.
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“Combating armed crime, confiscating illegal weapons, and enhancing public security are among the province's top law enforcement priorities,” he said.
Iranian security forces also carried out operations around the villages of Bidlad and Shushgim in Rask County on Friday following an earlier attack on an intelligence office elsewhere in the province.
Haalvsh reported hours of gunfire and explosions during those operations, while Iranian state-affiliated media confirmed armed clashes in the area.
Sistan-Baluchestan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long faced attacks by armed Baluch groups as well as security operations by Iranian forces.
Jaish al-Adl is among the most prominent armed Baluch groups operating in the province. The group says it fights for greater political, religious and economic rights for Iran’s predominantly Sunni Baluch population.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly accused armed groups operating in the southeast of receiving foreign backing, including from the United States and Israel.
