Iran paramilitary Basij member killed in southeast: Media

A member of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in an attack in the country’s restive southeastern region on Thursday, state media reported.

“Reza Azarkish, a local Basij member, in the city of Iranshahr in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan was shot dead by a terrorist group,” the Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces said in a statement carried by the state TV.

They did not specify which militant group was behind the attack but said efforts were ongoing to arrest the perpetrators.

Earlier, in the same province, a police commander, wounded in an attack on Tuesday, succumbed to his injuries, bringing the death toll from that attack to three.

“Colonel Ebrahim Fazilat, police commander of Sib and Suran county, who was seriously injured in the terrorist attack on the Zahedan-Khash route on September 16, joined his martyred companions,” the province’s Police Information Centre said, according to state news agency IRNA.

On Tuesday, Iranian media reported that unknown assailants opened fire on a vehicle carrying police officers, killing two and injuring a third.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long been a flashpoint for clashes between security forces and armed groups, including drug traffickers and separatists.

Home to a large Baluch community, the province is one of the poorest regions of Iran.