On Saturday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards reported the death of another of its senior officers in fighting in the Iran southeast.
According to a statement from the Guards, Colonel Hamid Reza Hashemi, an intelligence officer in the ideological branch of the Iranian army, “succumbed to injuries he acquired during skirmishes with the terrorists.”
The incident occurred outside a police station in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, on Friday, and now there have been 20 fatalities.
Colonel Ali Mousavi, a provincial intelligence officer in the Guards, was reportedly one of the fatalities, according to the official TV.
Hossein Khiabani, the regional governor of Sistan-Baluchestan, had previously informed state television that a total of 20 people had also been hurt during the fighting.
The connection between the fights and the wave of violent upheaval that has engulfed Iran since the death of Kurdish lady Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of the morality police in mid-September was not immediately apparent.
Attacks or battles between security forces and armed groups in the province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, sometimes include smuggling gangs as well as separatist or extremist organisations.
