An Iranian police officer was killed and another wounded on Friday night when gunmen from a Sunni militant group opened fire on a military vehicle in the southeastern city of Iranshahr, local police said.
The police have identified the victims as Sgt. Ramin Sadeghi.
The gunmen exchanged fire with police before fleeing, according to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News.
The shooting occurred when a passing car opened fire on security forces moving through the city, according to a report by Haalvsh, a human rights organization that focuses on the restive Sistan-Baluchestan province.
A heavy security presence followed, with dozens of military and plainclothes forces dispatched to the scene, according to witnesses. Checkpoints were set up at the entrances and exits of Iranshahr, where drivers were stopped and asked for identification.
The Sunni militant group Jaish ul-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram channel.
The incident comes less than three weeks after a deadly assault on a courthouse in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan, in which nine people were killed — including three attackers — and 20 others wounded.
Jaish ul-Adl said it carried out that attack, which involved gunmen storming the judiciary compound and setting off an explosion.
Sistan and Baluchestan, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long experienced unrest involving Sunni militant groups, drug traffickers, and security forces.
Jaish al-Adl, designated a terrorist organization by both Iran and the United States, says it fights for the rights of Iran’s Baloch minority but is accused by Tehran of ties to cross-border militant networks.
