Iran hangs three over 2019 Zahedan bombings

13-11-2023
Rudaw
A+ A-

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Monday carried out the death sentence of three men convicted of carrying out suicide bombing attacks on security forces in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, the judiciary said. 

Three men were found guilty of carrying out bombing attacks in 2019 targeting a police station and a patrol vehicle in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan province. 

“The executions of the perpetrators of three people who committed bombings in Zahedan city were carried out today,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online quoted the province’s chief justice Ali Mostafavinia as saying. 

They were “receiving military training and transferring and hiding bomb-making cargoes,” Mizan added. 

The perpetrators were convicted of being part of the Jaish al-Adl (Justice Army), a Balochi Sunni jihadist group operating in the province. The militants have waged an insurgency against the Islamic republic and carried out attacks against its forces, especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Baluchis are a mainly Sunni ethnic minority in Iran, living predominantly in the Baluchestan region near the border with Pakistan. The region was heavily targeted during the violent crackdown by the IRGC on the September 2022 nationwide protests. Hundreds of Baluchis were killed by the IRGC during demonstrations in Zahedan and Khash.

Jaish al-Adl has carried out a number of suicide attacks on Iranian security forces, killing dozens in the border area. The administration of former US president Donald Trump added the group to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations in July 2019, five months after the group carried out a deadly suicide attack on the IRGC.

The attack killed 27 guards near Zahedan.

In May, five Iranian border guards were killed in clashes with an armed group in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

A month later, another Iranian border guard was killed during similar clashes near the city of Saravan in the province.

Jaish al-Adl in July claimed responsibility for killing two police officers after militants stormed a police station with suicide belts.

 

Comments

Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.

To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.

We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.

Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.

Post a comment

Required
Required