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Five Revolutionary Guard forces were killed after insurgents attacked a border outpost in the restive Sistan-Baluchestan province in southeastern Iran, in the latest case of ping-pong clashes between the two sides over the past few weeks, local authorities announced.
The militants attacked a watchtower in Sirkan area of Saravan near the Iranian-Pakistani border on Sunday evening, killing five members of the IRGC's Basij paramilitary forces, Mansour Bijar, the governor-general of Sistan-Baluchestan, told the state-run television.
Bijar said the victims were all local Baloch, Sunni Muslims, but the insurgents were not Baloch or Sunni, and were coming from the neighboring country.
The IRGC's Ground Force says the assailants are at large, and the Revolutionary Guard has launched a manhunt.
Videos released by local news outlets like Haalvsh show IRGC surveillance drones flying over the city of Saravan to find the militants.
The attack came nine days after four militants were killed and eight others arrested in a joint operation by the IRGC and the Islamic Republic's intelligence ministry.
The November 1 operation was launched in response to an October 26 attack by Sunni Baloch group Jaish al-Adl in the city of Taftan in southeastern Iran, during which 10 Iranian border guards were killed.
The Jaish al-Adl attack was condemned by the United Nations Security Council as a "cowardly terrorist attack."
Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province has been the site of numerous attacks attributed to Jaish al-Adl, a group known for its history of ambushes, bombings, and other violent operations, resulting in the deaths of both civilians and security personnel.
Jaish al-Adl advocates for an independent Balochistan that includes Baloch communities on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border and has carried out numerous armed attacks in southeastern Iran.
In January, the IRGC announced it had carried out missile and drone strikes on the militant group’s bases within Pakistani territory. The rare cross-border offensive angered Pakistani officials and led Islamabad to respond with airstrikes on several sites in southeastern Iran.
