• State television said ‘criminals’ had opened fire at a checkpoint

TEHRAN: Gunmen killed the bodyguard of a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday in an attack on a checkpoint in the country’s restive southeast, state media said.

IRNA news agency said the shooting occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan, a province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan that is often the scene of attacks or clashes between security forces and armed groups.

The slain bodyguard was identified as Mahmoud Absalan, the son of General Parviz Absalan, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the region.

State television said “criminals” had opened fire at the checkpoint, located at the entrance to the provincial capital of Zahedan.

IRNA said the security forces arrested those behind the attack.

Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan is a flashpoint for clashes with smuggling gangs, as well as separatists from the Baluchi minority and extremist militant groups.

In January, state media said three Guard members were among nine people killed in a clash with “armed criminals” in the same region.

And in November, IRNA said three members of the security forces were killed in similar circumstances also in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Saturday’s deadly shooting comes two days after Iran announced the arrest in Sistan-Baluchistan of three people it said were linked to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

AFP