ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian security forces shot and killed a Baluch man early Wednesday during a vehicle chase in the country's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, a rights watchdog reported, amid rising tensions following a series of armed clashes between security forces and unidentified gunmen.
Baluch human rights group Haalvsh said Iranian security forces pursued the man's vehicle at around 3 am on Wednesday in Khash county. The watchdog alleged that security forces opened fire without issuing a warning.
"After about an hour of shooting, military and security forces removed the man's body and vehicle from the scene using a crane," Haalvsh said.
However, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported later Wednesday that police officers had become suspicious of two vehicles near a gas station, claiming that the occupants opened fire on police first.
Tasnim said an "armed individual" was killed in the exchange of fire, while two others fled the scene.
It wasn't immediately whether Tasnim referred to the same incident.
The Baluch ethnic minority makes up the majority of the population in Sistan-Baluchestan, where Iranian security forces have repeatedly clashed with armed groups.
On Monday, two people were killed and several security personnel injured during clashes after Iranian forces opened fire on a vehicle in the province.
Haalvsh reported that an armed man and a member of the security forces were killed in the incident, while Tasnim denied reports of clashes in the area.
The latest violence comes amid heightened security tensions in Iran's minority-populated frontier regions, with Baluch armed groups operating in the southeast and Kurdish opposition groups active in the country's west.
In western Iran, the IRGC has intensified drone strikes and artillery shelling in the Shaho mountains of Kurdistan province.
The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group, warned Saturday that it would exercise its "right to self-defense" if Iranian attacks on its positions continued.
