At least 11 police officers killed in attack in southeastern Iran

At least 11 police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeast Iran, according to a local official and state television. 

The deputy governor, Ali Reza Marhemati, stated, "During the terrorist attack on the police headquarters in the city of Rask, 11 police officers were killed, and others were injured." A jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack. 

The assault occurred in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province, near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, in the mid-night on Thursday.  

This attack is considered one of the deadliest in a region marked by frequent clashes between security forces and drug traffickers, rebels from the Baloch minority, and Sunni extremist groups. 

The Balochi militant organization, " Jaish ul-Adl," formed in 2012 by former members of a Sunni extremist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The television reported that "several terrorists were killed" in clashes between the attackers and the police. 

Previously, the same organization claimed the abduction of 12 Iranian police officers and soldiers in the same province in October 2018. In July, two police officers were killed in an attack claimed by the group, targeting a police station in Zahedan, one of the major cities in the province. 

AFP