Gunmen Ambush Police Patrols in Southeastern Iran, Five Officers Dead

Unidentified gunmen attacked two police patrols near Iranshahr in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province on August 22, killing five officers.

Authorities said the assailants opened fire on vehicles stationed on the Khash-Iranshahr road, The Caspian Post informs via Iranian media.

The attack comes amid a surge of violence in the border province, which has long been a hotspot for militant activity and drug trafficking. The Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, designated a terrorist organization by Iran and the US, has claimed responsibility for several recent assaults, including a July attack on a courthouse in Zahedan that killed nine, and clashes in Saravan earlier this month.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said that their forces had killed six militants and destroyed two hideouts in coordinated raids, seizing explosives, detonators, and communications equipment.

"Two terrorist teams were destroyed," the Guards said, adding that local residents had helped identify militant safe houses. The IRGC’s Quds Base, overseeing operations in Sistan-Baluchestan and neighboring Kerman, stated that the militants had been planning sabotage and bombings.

Jaish al-Adl had also claimed responsibility for a previous shooting on August 15 in Iranshahr that killed one officer and wounded another. Earlier in August, three militants and one officer were killed in clashes in Saravan, while a late-July assault on the Zahedan courthouse left nine dead, an attack also claimed by the group.