There are people killed in an attack on a police station in Iran

2023-12-16 13:11:08

At least 11 police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in Sistan and Baluchistan province of southeastern Iran. It is reported that jihadists claimed responsibility for the attack. The information was broadcast by state television on December 15.

“In the terrorist attack on the police headquarters in the city of Rask, 11 police officers were killed and there are wounded”— the deputy governor of the province Alirza Mercy said.

According to the TV channel, several of the attackers were killed in a shootout with the security forces. The Sunni jihadist group “Jaish Al-Adl” (Army of Justice) claimed responsibility for the attack, the TV channel said. “Jaish Al-Adl” was founded in 2012 and is considered a terrorist group in Iran.

The impoverished province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan, has so far been plagued by unrest involving drug-trafficking gangs, the Baloch minority and Sunni Muslim extremists.

Previous attacks

There have been similar attacks before.

On July 23, four police officers were killed while on duty.

Two weeks ago, two police officers and four attackers were killed in an armed incident. The attack was claimed by the “Jaish Al-Adl” group.

In May, five Iranian border guards were killed in clashes with an armed group in the southeast of Zahida, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province. According to the information disseminated by the state media, the attack was carried out by a terrorist group that wanted to enter the country, but its members fled the scene after being injured.

At the end of May, the IRNA commander of the Iranian Border Guards Kasim Rezaireported that Taliban forces opened fire on the Iranian police station in Sistan and Baluchistan. The region also borders Afghanistan, and the two countries dispute water rights.

Zahidan is a town with a small Sunni majority in the predominantly Shia country of Iran. In September of last year, deaths were recorded during protests that lasted for months. The riots were caused by reports that a teenage girl was allegedly raped by a police officer.

Freedom radio