TEHRAN: Militant attacks in southeastern Iran near Pakistan killed 10 Iranian security personnel, state media reported on Thursday, doubling an earlier toll.
The Pakistan-based Sunni Muslim rebel group Jaish Al-Adl, or Army of Justice, claimed the attacks.
The number of dead is almost as large as from a similar attack in December, which the same group claimed and which was followed by tit-for-tat air strikes with Pakistan.
The attacks hit Sistan-Baluchistan province which has for years faced unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremists.
“The case of the terrorist attacks was closed with the martyrdom of 10 members of the security forces,” and the killing of 18 “terrorists,” state television said.
Majid Mirahmadi, vice-minister of the interior, had earlier told the channel that five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the police died during two night-time attacks against a Guards base in Rask and a police post in Chabahar.
“The terrorists had planned to seize military bases,” Mirahmadi later told state television, adding that “none of them survived” the clashes.
He added that the assailants appeared to be foreigners, without providing further details.
The number of assailants killed in the clashes also rose from the 15 which General Mohammad Pakpour, who heads the Guards’ land forces, had announced on television.
The group Jaish Al-Adl claimed the attacks on its Telegram channel. Formed in 2012, it is listed as a “terrorist” group by Iran and also by the United States.
“Pakistan unequivocally condemns the heinous and dastardly terrorist attacks at police and security installations,” the foreign ministry in Islamabad said.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and pray for the recovery of the injured.”
It added that Pakistan “is deeply concerned about the growing acts of terrorism in our region.”
Jaish Al-Adl claimed an attack in December that killed 11 officers at a police station in Rask, one of the deadliest in years.
The group claimed another Rask police station attack that killed one officer on January 10.
A week later, Iran said it retaliated with drone and missile strikes against Jaish Al-Adl targets over the border in Pakistan.
In response, Pakistan said it carried out air strikes against Baluchi separatists inside Iran.
The Iranian strikes killed at least two children, according to Pakistan, while Pakistan’s strikes killed at least nine people in Iran, according to the official IRNA news agency.
The rare cross-border fire fueled regional tensions already inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war, but by late January the neighbors were seeking to mend relations.
Baluchistan is split in two by the porous border between the two countries.
Impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan province, which also borders Afghanistan, is one of the few mainly Sunni provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran.
10 Iran security personnel dead in militant attacks: TV
https://arab.news/6f2x5
10 Iran security personnel dead in militant attacks: TV
- The Pakistan-based Sunni Muslim rebel group Jaish Al-Adl, or Army of Justice, claimed the attacks
- Majid Mirahmadi, vice-minister of the interior, had earlier told the channel that five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the police died during two night-time attacks
Iran offers concessions on nuclear program
- Atomic energy chief says it will dilute enriched uranium if US eases sanctions
TEHRAN: Iran offered on Monday to dilute its highly enriched uranium if the US lifts sanctions.
Mohammad Eslami, head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, did not specify whether this included all sanctions on Iran or only those imposed by the US.
The new move follows talks on the issue in Oman last week that both sides described as positive and constructive.
Diluting uranium means mixing it with blend material to reduce the enrichment level, so that the final product does not exceed a given enrichment threshold.
Before US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities in June last year, Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent, far exceeding the 3.67 percent limit allowed under the now-defunct nuclear agreement with world powers in 2015.
According to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Iran is the only state without nuclear weapons that is enriching uranium to 60 percent.
The whereabouts of more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium that Iran possessed before the war is also unknown. UN inspectors last recorded its location on June 10. Such a stockpile could allow Iran to build more than nine nuclear bombs if enrichment reached 90 percent.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians on Monday to resist foreign pressure.
“National power is less about missiles and aircraft and more about the will and resolve of the people,” Khamenei said. “Show it again and frustrate the enemy.”
Nevertheless, despite this defiance, Iran has signaled it could come to some kind of deal to dial back its nuclear program and avoid further conflict with Washington.
