Two Iranian Guards Killed in Attack Near Iraq Border; Separate Incident Kills Family in Southeast
State media in Iran reported on Tuesday that attackers shot dead two members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards at their home in the western city of Paveh, near the border with Iraq's Kurdistan region. Two other Guards members were wounded in the incident.
State television described the shooting as a 'terrorist and cowardly act', and said 'exact details of this incident and the measures being taken to identify those responsible are under review'. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Sepah news, the official media outlet of the Guards, later said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had dismantled a team working for 'anti-government and separatist groups' that had entered Iran from the northwestern border. The report included blurred photos showing four bodies of people allegedly killed in the operation.
Separately, state television reported that on Monday, a family's vehicle was sprayed with bullets in the southeastern town of Saravan in Sistan-Baluchistan province. The attack killed the father and wounded the mother, who later died of her injuries. Authorities did not immediately identify those responsible, but state television said the attack 'was carried out by Zionist-American mercenaries', a term Iranian officials commonly use for separatist and militant groups.
Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long seen clashes between security forces, insurgents and drug smugglers. The province is one of Iran's poorest and is home to a sizeable ethnic Baloch population, most of whom are Sunni Muslims in a Shiite-majority nation.
