Iran forces kill seven militants in restive province bordering Pakistan
Deputy provincial governor Ali Velayatipour said the gunmen, all members of the Ansar Al-Furqan group, were killed in the early hours of Sunday, according to official news agency IRNA.
The militants 'intended to attack sensitive centers and military and law enforcement bases,' Velayatipour said.
Iran has designated Ansar Al-Furqan a 'terrorist' organization. Last year, the group claimed a suicide attack that killed a police officer, also in Sistan-Baluchistan.
The province which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan is one of Iran's poorest, and a frequent scene of clashes between security forces and Baloch minority rebels.
It is home to a large ethnic Baloch population, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, in contrast to Iran's Shiite majority.
On Saturday, gunmen killed a police officer in a shootout in the province, with the militant group Jaish Al-Adl (Arabic for 'Army of Justice') claiming responsibility.
The group, which operates from the borderlands between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, mainly the Sistan-Baluchestan triangle, but has been active mainly inside Iran, has claimed multiple attacks in recent years, including an assault on a courthouse last month that left at least six people dead.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Tehran will continue talks with IAEA, foreign ministry says
Iran will continue talks with the IAEA - the UN nuclear watchdog - and the two sides will probably have another round of negotiations in the coming days, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday. Developing
Asharq Al-Awsat
17 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
European Leaders to Join Ukraine's Zelenskyy for Meeting with Trump
European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they will join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump on ending Russia's war in Ukraine, with the possibility of US security guarantees now on the negotiating table. Leaders from France, Britain and Germany are rallying around the Ukrainian leader after his exclusion from Trump's summit on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their pledge to be at Zelenskyy's side at the White House on Monday is an apparent effort to ensure the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated Zelenskyy in a heated Oval Office encounter. 'The Europeans are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated and so they want to support Mr. Zelenskyy to the hilt,' said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France's military mission at the United Nations. 'It's a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump,' he said. Special US envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Putin agreed at the meeting in Alaska with Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Zelenskyy, said 'we welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. And the 'Coalition of the willing' -- including the European Union -- is ready to do its share.' Von der Leyen was joined Sunday by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in saying they will take part in Monday's talks at the White House, as will secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte. The European leaders' demonstration of support could help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Ukraine risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Trump says he wants to broker with Russia. Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said European leaders are trying to 'shape this fast-evolving agenda.' After the Alaska summit, the idea of a ceasefire appears all-but-abandoned, with the narrative shifting toward Putin's agenda of ensuring Ukraine does not join NATO or even the EU. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday that a possible ceasefire is 'not off the table' but that the best way to end the war would be through a 'full peace deal.' Putin has implied that he sees Europe as a hindrance to negotiations. He has also resisted meeting Zelenskyy in person, saying that such a meeting can only take place once the groundwork for a peace deal has been laid. Speaking to the press after his meeting with Trump, the Russian leader raised the idea that Kyiv and other European capitals could 'create obstacles' to derail potential progress with 'behind-the-scenes intrigue.' For now, Zelenskyy offers the Europeans the 'only way' to get into the discussions about the future of Ukraine and European security, says RUSI's Melvin. However, the sheer number of European leaders potentially in attendance means the group will have to be 'mindful' not to give 'contradictory' messages, Melvin said. 'The risk is they look heavy-handed and are ganging up on Trump,' he added. 'Trump won't want to be put in a corner.' Although details remain hazy on what Article 5-like security guarantees from the US and Europe would entail for Ukraine, it could mirror NATO membership terms, in which an attack on one member of the alliance is seen as an attack on all. In remarks made on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Witkoff said Friday's meeting with Trump was the first time Putin has been had heard to agree to such an arrangement. Zelenskyy continues to stress the importance of both US and European involvement in any negotiations. 'A security guarantee is a strong army. Only Ukraine can provide that. Only Europe can finance this army, and weapons for this army can be provided by our domestic production and European production. But there are certain things that are in short supply and are only available in the United States,' he said at the press conference Sunday alongside Von der Leyen.
Al Arabiya
20 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump, Putin agreed to ‘robust security guarantees' for Ukraine: Witkoff
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to 'robust security guarantees' for Ukraine during their high-stakes summit in Alaska, a top White House envoy said Sunday. 'We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing,' Steve Witkoff said on CNN. He also said that Russia has made 'some concessions' with regard to five Ukrainian regions central to Moscow's war against that country during the high-stakes Alaska summit between Trump and Putin. 'The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,' Witkoff said, in an apparent reference to the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea.
