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2 dead in clash with ‘terrorists’ in southeast Iran
TEHRAN, July 21, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard
and a Basij militia fighter have been killed in a clash with a “terrorist
group” in the country’s southeast, state media reported on Sunday.
The firefight took place late Saturday in Saravan county of Sistan-
Baluchistan province, which straddles the border with Pakistan, said the
official IRNA news agency.
The two dead were identified as Guards commando Mohsen Naghibi and local
Basij member Abdolkhalegh Derazehi.
Sistan-Baluchistan has long been a flashpoint, where Pakistan-based
Baluchi separatists and jihadists carry out cross-border raids.
The jihadist outfit Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”) has in the past
attacked and abducted Iranian security personnel.
The most recent attack killed 27 Guards in a February 13 suicide bombing
which targeted a busload of the unit in the volatile region.
Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 as a successor to the Sunni extremist
group Jundallah (Soldiers of God), which waged a deadly insurgency for a
decade before it was severely weakened by the capture and execution of its
leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1621 hrs