File image.
Five Iranian border guards were killed in a clash in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan with armed terrorists trying to enter the country near the Pakistani border, Iranian state TV reported on May 21.
The clash took place in the town of Saravan. The terrorists fled the area with casualties, according to the state TV, which didn’t provide any additional details. Originally, it was reported that six border guards were killed in the clash. However, later the official number of fatalities was lowered to five. Two more guards were also wounded.
The deputy commander of the Iranian law enforcement forces and the head of border guards were reported to have visited the area to investigate the incident.
Sistan and Baluchistan experienced several rounds of clashes between the Iranian security forces and terrorist groups and drug traffickers in the last few years.
In April, Colonel Alireza Shahraki, chief of the Iranian Police Criminal Investigation Department in Saravan, was assassinated in the province. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, so far.
The new deadly attack came amid an improvement in Iranian-Pakistani relations. Last week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated a border market and an electricity transmission line, which will provide some of Pakistan’s remote regions with Iranian electricity.
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