DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A convoy of Iranian police officers came under attack Saturday in the country's restive southern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, with at least one activist group and an initial report saying the assault killed several officers.
Details remain scarce over the attack in Gohar Kuh, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
A report on the state-run IRNA news agency described the convoy as being attacked by “miscreants,” without elaborating. It said further information would be released later.
HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, posted photos and video of what appeared to be a disabled truck painted with the green stripe used by Iranian police vehicles. One graphic photo shared by the group showed what appeared to be the corpses of two police officers in the front seat of the truck.
HalVash said the attack appeared to target two security force vehicles and all those riding in them were killed. The truck appeared to have only damage from bullets, rather than any explosive being used.
IRNA also reported via the Telegram messaging app that Eskandar Momeni, the country's interior minister, ordered an investigation into the incident that it described as causing the “martyrdom of a number of police.”
Authorities identified no immediate suspects for the attack, nor did any group claim responsibility. The assault came after Israel launched a major attack across Iran early Saturday morning.
The Baluch regions across the three nations have faced a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. Verifying information remains difficult in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan, which for decades has been home to violence involving heroin traffickers.
Meanwhile, the Taliban said they are investigating reports that Afghan migrants had been killed by Iranian security forces in the region earlier in October, an incident that threatened to further strain relations between the nations.
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Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press
