The Media Line: 5 Iranian Security Personnel Killed in Attack Near Pakistan Border

At least five Iranian security personnel were killed in the country’s southeast on Sunday, according to local media and authorities, in what was the latest in a wave of violent clashes between government forces and insurgents.

The attack took place in the city of Saravan, some 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) southeast of Tehran and 55 miles (88 kilometers) west of the Iran-Pakistan border, in the sparsely populated Sistan-Baluchestan province, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Mansour Bijar, head of the provincial government, told state television Sunday evening that the insurgents attacked a watchtower in the Sirkan area of the city and that the five killed were all ethnic Baloch members of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) volunteer Basij force.

While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly assault, Bijar said that the attackers were neither Baloch nor Sunni and instead had come from a nearby country.

The Baloch people are a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority populating a large area across Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. 2 million Baloch live in Iran, primarily in Sistan-Baluchestan, where they make up roughly 90 percent of the population.

The IRGC-run Fars news agency later reported that following the attack, “units stationed in the region were quickly deployed to pursue the criminals.”

Last month, the Pakistan-based Baloch Sunni jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl carried out an attack on Iranian police that left 10 dead and prompted Tehran to launch a major operation into the region. Security operatives have killed 15 insurgents, including three on Saturday, and captured 30 more, according to state television.

Over the weekend, a suicide bombing claimed by another Baloch separatist group killed at least 25 people at a train station in southwest Pakistan.