A senior officer of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and three members of the Basij volunteer force have been killed in clashes with terrorists, who opened fire on them in an area in the country’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan close to the border with Pakistan.
The IRGC Ground Force’s Quds Base said in a statement on Monday that Second Lieutenant Mohammad Gouradzi and three Basij members, identified as Rahim Bakhshparaki, Hamidreza Abedi and Mahmoud Nikkhaah, lost their lives when IRGC forces engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with counterrevolutionary elements in the Saravan region of the province.
The statement added that the terrorists had to flee toward Pakistan after they were confronted by the powerful presence of IRGC forces.
Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan, has witnessed several terror attacks targeting both civilians and security forces over the past years.
Terrorist groups carrying out attacks against Iranian interests in southeastern and southwestern parts of the country have known links to a number of repressive regimes in the Persian Gulf region.
Iran’s security forces have invariably protected the border areas and managed to repel almost all terrorist attacks by foreign-backed anti-revolution elements across the country.
Last month, a top IRGC commander warned of enemies’ plots to create chaos in Sistan and Baluchestan province, urging vigilance in the face of such efforts.
Addressing a group of senior Shia and Sunni clerics and elders of Sistan and Baluchestan on November 10, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC’s Ground Force, said the enemies would commit every crime and carry out whatever move to disrupt security and create chaos in the province.
He added that unity among Shia and Sunni clerics would restore peace to the province and thwart enemies’ plots to hinder progress and development by spreading insecurity.
“The enemy resorts to every measure at its disposal to create chaos in Sistan and Baluchestan,” the IRGC commander said, urging the province’s clerics, elders and people to remain vigilant.
Back in October, terrorists torched a fire engine, an emergency station, and a bank there, but according to authorities, their attempts to trigger ethnic sedition in the region fell flat thanks to the timely presence of security forces.
The attacks, claimed by the so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group, left at least 19 people, including police officers, dead and 20 others injured.
