The Iranian general’s bodyguard is killed in a shootout in Sistan-Balochistan, a province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle transporting a general from the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the south-east of the country, killing a bodyguard in the ensuing firefight.
Brigadier General Hossein Almassi, an IRGC commander in Sistan-Balochistan province, survived Saturday’s ambush without injuries, state news agency IRNA reported.
According to the report, “criminals” opened fire at a checkpoint in Iran’s southeastern province, a region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan that has been the scene of clashes between Baloch minority separatists, other armed groups and Iranian forces.
IRNA said security forces arrested those behind the attack near the provincial capital Zahedan.
The report identified the deceased bodyguard as Mahmoud Absalan, the son of General Parviz Absalan, another IRGC commander in the area.
The poverty-stricken province is also a major smuggling route for Afghan opium and heroin, making it a flashpoint for clashes between criminal gangs and drug dealers.
The attack came on an evening when many were celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of the Revolutionary Guards following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Saturday’s deadly shooting also came two days after Iran announced the arrest of three people in Sistan-Baluchistan it said were linked to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
In January, three members of the Revolutionary Guard were among nine people killed in a clash with “armed criminals” in the same region, a month after troops killed a gunman who had attacked the IRGC’s rural intelligence office.
In 2019, a suicide bomber killed 27 members of the Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Balochistan in one of the most daring attacks on Iran’s most powerful military institution.