Killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers: Did Jaish al-Adl respond to execution of its members?

Four members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were killed in clashes with an armed group in Saravan County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province near the Pakistani border.

The area is one of the poorest regions of Iran and is inhabited by the Baloch ethnic minority. The incident comes in light of tensions in the country and ongoing protests since the death of the young woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 while she was being held by the morality police in the capital, Tehran.

The incident also comes nearly a month after the Iranian authorities announced the execution of two people affiliated with the opposition Baloch Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) after they were convicted of killing four policemen in 2016 in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast, which is witnessing acts of violence.

This area has witnessed many confrontations between members of the Revolutionary Guards and Jaish al-Adl.

Constant confrontations

According to a statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the dead were members of the Quds Force, including an officer named Mohammad Goudarzi and the other three from the Basij forces, indicating that the armed group that clashed with the Revolutionary Guards forces headed towards the Pakistani border, without mentioning the presence of casualties among its members.

The Iranian authorities did not announce the identity of the armed group that clashed with the Revolutionary Guards, while the commander of the border guards in Saravan, Hussein Ali Farahi, said that clashes took place between his forces and “armed aggressors belonging to a terrorist group.”

He explained that “the aggressors, who were planning to enter Iranian territory from Pakistan to carry out sabotage operations, fled to the neighboring country.”

Sistan and Baluchestan Province, which borders Pakistan, frequently witnesses armed confrontations between the security forces and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the one hand, and armed elements on the other. Although no armed group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Jaish al-Adl is active on the border between Iran and Pakistan and usually adopts such attacks.

Inflamed area

The area that witnessed the killing of four Revolutionary Guards members is located on the border with Pakistan and within the Sunni-majority Baluchestan region, which includes armed Baloch groups opposed to the Iranian regime. It has witnessed many battles between Iranian forces and armed groups, led by Jaish al-Adl. These battles have left dozens dead and wounded on both sides.

Jaish al-Adl announced several operations that were carried out in this region against the Revolutionary Guards. In January 2017, a statement by the group announced that its fighters destroyed two vehicles belonging to the Revolutionary Guards in an ambush in the city of Sarbaz in the southeast of the country, and the statement stated that the operation resulted in the killing of five border guards.

The latest attack came after the Iranian judiciary announced in November the execution of two people affiliated with Jaish al-Adl after they were convicted of killing four policemen in 2016 in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

According to the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website, the two elements affiliated with Jaish al-Adl, Rashid Baloch and Ishaq Askani, were executed in Zahedan prison in the province that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It is noteworthy that Jaish al-Adl is an Iranian armed opposition group that says it is fighting Iranian forces to restore the rights of the Sunnis in Iran. The group is active in the southwestern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and it accuses the Iranian authorities of practicing sectarian schemes. It is led by Abdul-Rahim Mollazadeh, who issues his statements under the name Salahuddin Farooqui.