Six Iranian border guards killed in clash in southeast

Six Iranian border guards were killed Sunday during clashes with an armed group in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, local media reported.

The guards were killed in Saravan, near Iran’s border with Pakistan, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website quoted local prosecutor Mehdi Shamsabadi as saying.

Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

Sunday’s attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country” but “fled across the border after the clash,” Fars news agency reported.

The attack was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

On March 11, two policemen were shot dead during clashes with “criminals” in the same region, the state news agency IRNA reported at the time.