Armed attacks on police and army personnel across Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province left security forces dead and wounded on Wednesday evening. The attackers’ identities and the full casualty toll remained unclear. Iranian police said an explosion at police headquarters in Golshan County was followed by gunfire from armed attackers. Police killed one assailant and wounded several others, official sources said, while a search for the remaining attackers continued, according to the Tasnim news agency. A minibus carrying military personnel also came under armed attack in the Nikshahr area as they traveled to a shift change, Tasnim reported, citing the public relations office of the Iranian army’s 88th Armored Division. The official account said serviceman Mohammad Reza Oukati was killed and three others were wounded. In a third attack, gunmen targeted a police patrol carrying out a security mission along the “Lakhshak–Zahedan/Nosratabad” route, killing officer Vahid Enayat, Tasnim said. Several attackers were wounded but escaped, prompting Iranian forces to launch a search. The attacks follow a string of operations and assaults in recent days. On Oct. 5, Iranian sources reported that two police officers were killed and a third was wounded in an attack on a patrol in Bampur, in the same province. The violence appears to form part of a series of attacks and clashes close together in time across the province. Reports in early October described hours-long clashes near Zahedan. The Revolutionary Guards later said they had killed six people they described as members of an armed group, though accounts concerning the opposing side remained disputed. Days earlier, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced it had dismantled three armed cells in the southeast, arrested 10 people and killed two others in clashes. That suggests security agencies were already on heightened alert in the region before Wednesday’s attacks.
