Police captain killed in armed attack on security vehicle in Iran

Iran’s Law Enforcement Force reported that gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying officers on the Bazman-Iranshahr road in the southern part of the province on Monday. Captain Alireza Mehrabi was killed and three other officers were wounded in the assault near Iranshahr.

Authorities said efforts to identify and arrest those responsible are continuing.

The incident comes amid a recent uptick in armed clashes in Sistan and Baluchestan. Early Friday, videos and images of nighttime fighting circulated on social media from the provincial capital Zahedan, where state media reported one police officer killed. Separately, Iranian outlets reported the killing of a Sunni Baloch cleric, Mawlawi Yousef Gorgij, outside his home in Zahedan earlier this month; a local monitoring group described him as a supporter of the government close to security agencies.

Sistan and Baluchestan, a predominantly Baloch and Sunni region on Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long seen periodic unrest, attacks on security forces, and tensions between local communities and central authorities.