TEHRAN: An attack, which was later claimed by a Sunni Muslim extremist group, killed a policeman in restive southeastern Iran on Wednesday, state media reported.
Sistan-Baluchistan province, where the attack took place, is one of the few mainly Sunni provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran and has seen persistent unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baluchi ethnic minority as well as extremists.
“In an exchange of fire this morning between forces from a police station in Rask and members of an armed group, one of the policemen was killed,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
The news agency said the firefight lasted around three hours before the arrival of police reinforcements prompted the assailants to withdraw.
The attack was claimed by extremist group Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice) in a brief statement on its Telegram channel. Jaish Al-Adl was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group.
It was the second deadly attack on security forces in Rask claimed by the group in recent weeks.
At least 11 officers were killed in a similar attack on a police station in the town before dawn on December 15.
Sistan-Baluchistan province borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long been regarded as a key access point for militant groups, drug smugglers and irregular migrants.
Last week, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced new measures to firm up security along the porous border, following twin suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State extremist group that killed more than 90 people at a high-profile state event in the southern city of Kerman.
Vahidi said authorities had identified “priority points to block along the border.”
Attack claimed by extremists kills policeman in southeast Iran
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Attack claimed by extremists kills policeman in southeast Iran
UNESCO fears for fate of historical sites during Iran war
- “UNESCO is deeply concerned by the first impact that the hostilities are already having on many world heritage sites,” Assomo said
- Tehran’s Golestan palace, damaged in US–Israeli strikes, is testimony to the grandeur of Iran’s civilization in the 19th century
PARIS: UNESCO said it is deeply concerned about the fate of world heritage sites in Iran and across the region, after Tehran’s Golestan palace, often compared to Versailles, and a historic mosque and palace in Isfahan were damaged in the war.
The United Nations’ cultural agency on Wednesday urged all parties to protect the region’s outstanding cultural sites, saying four of Iran’s 29 world heritage sites had been damaged since the start of the US and Israeli war with Iran.
“UNESCO is deeply concerned by the first impact that the hostilities are already having on many world heritage sites,” Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the World Heritage Center, told Reuters, adding he was also concerned for sites in Israel, Lebanon and across the Middle East.
Tehran’s Golestan palace, damaged in US–Israeli strikes, is testimony to the grandeur of Iran’s civilization in the 19th century, he said.
The palace was chosen as the Persian royal residence and seat of power by the Qajar family and shows the introduction of European styles in Persian arts, according to the UNESCO website. The last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, held a coronation ceremony there in 1969.
“We sometimes even compare it with the Versailles Palace in France, for instance, and it has suffered, unfortunately, some damage. We don’t know the extent for the moment. But clearly, with the images that we have been able to receive, we can confirm ... it has been affected,” Eloundou Assomo said.
Photos of the interior of the palace have shown piles of smashed glass and shards of wood on the floor, and shattered woodwork.
Isfahan was one of Central Asia’s most important cities and a key point on the Silk Road trading route. Its Masjed-e Jame (Jameh Mosque) is more than 1,000 years old and shows the development of Islamic art through 12 centuries.
Buildings close to the buffer zone of the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley have also been damaged, UNESCO said.
UNESCO has shared coordinates of key cultural sites to all parties, Eloundou Assomo said, and was monitoring damage.
“We are calling for the protection of all sites of cultural significance ... everything that tells the history of all the civilizations of the 18 countries in the region,” he said.
