A series of terror attacks rocked Iran overnight involving gunmen in several locations storming military and police stations, which left at least eleven security service members dead. It happened in the country's restive border province which sits near Afghanistan and Pakistan.
State media detailed on Thursday that at least 16 suspected Sunni militants were killed during the assaults, which took place in the towns of Chabahar and Rask in Sistan-Baluchestan. "The terrorists failed to succeed achieving their goal of seizing the Guards headquarters in Chabahar and Rask," deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi announced.
The region also saw ten additional security personnel injured and wounded. The attacks are being widely blamed on Jaish al-Adl ("Army of Justice"), which is a Sunni Baluch separatist organization operating mainly in southeastern Iran.
Among the slain Iranian personnel was an IRGC officer as well as a Basij paramilitary force member, according to Iranian official IRNA news agency.
The attack reportedly went on for many hours, with some reports saying it lasted all night into morning, at well over 12 hours in total before the situation was stabilized. Images of pitched battles in the middle of city streets were posted to social media.
According to a description of the lengthy attack by an Al Jazeera correspondent:
"Gunmen stormed various security and military compounds simultaneously… and they also had suicide vests on," Jabbari said, adding that the fighting continued for several hours.
"The terrorists failed to succeed in achieving their goal of seizing the Guards headquarters in Chabahar and Rask," Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state TV.
Jaish al-Adl has conducted dozens of similar such attacks in the last number of years against Iranian military forces, particularly the IRGC. This has even included abductions of border guards and setting off bombs in civilian areas.
Baluch separatists have also been wreaking havoc incise of Pakistan of late, targeting especially Chinese infrastructural projects and investments.
But these latest overnight attacks come at a sensitive moment that all of Iran is already on edge over the ratcheting de facto state of war with Israel, following the Monday Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus. In the past, Tehran has suspected that destabilizing militant terror attacks inside Iran could have had the hidden hand of Mossad behind it, however in the case of restive Sistan-Baluchestan province, the problems there are historic and long-running.