At least six people, including law enforcement, were killed Saturday during a “terrorist attack” on a judicial building in southeast Iran, the judiciary said.
“The number of martyrs increased to six,” the judiciary’s Mizan online said following earlier reports of a death toll of five, with 13 injured.
Provincial chief justice Ali Movahedi-Rad, cited by Mizan, later announced the injured count had reached 22,”most of whom were civilians”.
All three of the gunmen, who had tried to enter the building disguised as visitors and were wearing explosive vests, were killed, he added.
“Three of the terrorists have been killed according to the announcement of the Quds Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Movahedi-Rad said.
The death toll also included three law enforcement members who were protecting the courthouse.
According to Alireza Daliri, deputy police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, the assailants threw a grenade into the building, killing several people inside.
Iranian media said shortly after the attack that Jaish al-Adl (Arabic for “Army of Justice”), a Baloch jihadist group based in Pakistan but active in Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Located about 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the restive province shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The area has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups, and drug traffickers.
In one of the deadliest incidents in the region, ten police officers were killed in October in what authorities also described as a “terrorist” attack.
rkh/dcp
© Agence France-Presse
