A police station in the southern border region of Iran was attacked by Sunni armed forces, resulting in the deaths of 11 police officers, according to major foreign media citing Iran's state-run IRIB broadcast on the 15th (local time).
According to local authorities, at around 2 a.m. that day, assailants raided the police station in the village of Rask in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, about 1400 km southwest of the capital Tehran, leading to a gunfight.
During the incident, 11 people including senior police officers and soldiers were killed, many were injured, and several assailants were also shot dead.
Authorities reported that the Sunni armed group 'Jaish al-Adl' (Army of Justice) claimed responsibility for the attack. Formed in 2012, Jaish al-Adl carried out a bus suicide bombing in 2019 that killed 27 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and is designated as a terrorist organization by Iran.
Sistan-Baluchestan Province is home to about 2 million Sunni Baluch minority Muslims and is considered the poorest region in Iran. In this area, clashes frequently occur between Sunni armed groups, separatist organizations, drug trafficking groups, and Iranian military authorities. During the 'Hijab protests' that have continued since September last year, violent clashes between protesters and security forces were particularly intense.
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