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Iran: Gunmen kill 11 in attack on police station in Sistan and Baluchistan province

Iran: Gunmen kill 11 in attack on police station in Sistan and Baluchistan province

Eleven people have died in a night-time attack on a police station by suspected members of a separatist group, according to Iranian state TV.

Senior police officers and soldiers were killed and others injured, said Ali Reza Marhemati, deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province.

He said some of the attackers were killed by police.

It happened around 2am in the town of Rask, in southeast Iran, about 875 miles (1,400km) from the capital Tehran.

Iranian television blamed the attack on the Jaish al Adl separatist group.

In recent months, militants and small separatist groups have attacked police stations as part of an insurgency.

Jaish al Adl wants more rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis.

In 2019, it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a bus that killed 27 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

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Sistan and Baluchistan province borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and is one of the least developed areas of Iran.

Its population is mainly Sunni Muslim, whereas the rest of Iran is predominantly Shia.

The province was also the site of heavy crackdowns following protests over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been detained in Tehran for allegedly not wearing her veil properly.