An attack by an armed group “and their attempt to enter the country was met with resistance by the border guards of the 16th border checkpoint of the Saravan border regiment,” Tasnim news agency said.
“In the clashes, a border guard was martyred.”
A number of Balochi jihadist groups operate in southeast Iran, primarily the Jaish al-Adl (Justice Army) group. The militants have waged an insurgency against the Islamic republic and carried out attacks against its forces, especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In late May, at least five Iranian border guards were killed during clashes with an unnamed armed group in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Two years ago, a Jaish al-Adl attack in Saravan killed at least five guards of the IRGC and three others were taken prisoner.
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 last September’s 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 areas. The group was added to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 2019 by the administration of former US president Donald Trump.
The designation was in response to a deadly attack by the group on the IRGC, which killed 27 guards near Sistan and Baluchestan’s provincial capital of Zahedan.
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