Two Iranian cops killed in ‘terrorist attack’ on police station

At least two Iranian police officials were killed in a grenade attack on police station, official news agency IRNA quoted Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as saying in a statement on Saturday.

The incident took place in the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province in southeast Iran.

The IRGC said in the statement that all “four terrorists” who attacked the police station in Zahedan had been killed.

Armed assailants hurled grenades to force their way into the police station, the statement said. 

Iranian security official also refused reports suggesting that the incident was a suicide attack.

Ali Reza Marhamati, the province’s deputy governor for security affairs, said that the attack began at 07:15 local time (03:45 GMT).

“Security forces managed to take control of the situation by their timely presence at the scene of the attack,” the official was quoted as saying.

He went on to say that the attackers had been neutralised before entering the police station.

Sistan-Baluchistan is one of Iran’s poorest provinces which is home to the Baluchi minority.

In May, five Iranian border guards were killed during clashes with an armed group in Saravan, southeast of Zahedan, in one of the province’s deadliest attacks in months.

State media reported at the time that the attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country” but whose members “fled the scene after suffering injuries.”

Zahedan was also the scene of protests that flared in September, with dozens of deaths, over the alleged rape of a teenage girl by a police officer.

In late May, IRNA quoted a police official, Qassem Rezaee, as saying “Taliban forces” had shot at an Iranian police station in Sistan-Baluchistan, a drought-parched region which also borders Afghanistan. The two countries have been arguing over water rights.

Iranian police did not give details of casualties in that incident but local news agency Mehr reported one Iranian border guard had been killed. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban said one person was killed on each side.

— With additional input from AFP