Global Courant 2023-05-21 13:20:04
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Five Iranian border guards have been killed in a clash with an unknown armed group trying to enter the country near the Pakistani border, state television reported Sunday.
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The fighting took place in the city of Saravan in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, about 1360 kilometers southeast of the capital Tehran. The report said the militants fled the casualty area but did not elaborate.
State television originally reported six guards killed, but later said five were killed. Two border guards were also injured in the confrontation. It did not blame any group for the attack and no group immediately claimed responsibility. There were no additional details.
The area is one of the least developed parts of Iran. The relationship between the region’s predominantly Sunni residents and Iran’s Shia theocracy has long been fraught.
On Thursday, the top leaders of Pakistan and Iran inaugurated the first border market as relations between the two countries heat up.
Located in the remote village of Pashin in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, the market is the first of six to be built along the Pakistan-Iran border under a 2012 agreement signed by the two sides.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi have also inaugurated an electricity transmission line, which will provide some of Pakistan’s remote regions with Iranian electricity.
