Ten police officers are killed in a deadly attack on an Iranian police convoy

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — At least 10 officers were killed in an attack on an Iranian police convoy on Saturday in the restive southern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, authorities said.

Details about the attack in Gohar Kuh, about 1,200 kilometers southeast of the Iranian capital Tehran, remain scarce.

Initially, reports simply described an attack by ‘miscreants’ without further information. But shortly afterwards, Iranian state media said 10 officers had been killed.

HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, posted photos and video of what appeared to be a disabled truck painted with the green stripe used by Iranian police vehicles. A graphic photo shared by the group showed what appeared to be the bodies of two police officers in the front seat of the truck.

HalVash said the attack appeared to target two security forces vehicles and everyone riding in them was killed. The truck appeared to have only been damaged by bullets, and not by the use of explosives.

State news agency IRNA said Eskandar Momeni, the country’s interior minister, ordered an investigation into the incident which it described as the cause of the “martyrdom of a number of police officers.”

Authorities have not identified any immediate suspects for the attack, nor have any groups claimed responsibility. The attack came next Israel launched a major attack on Iran early Saturday morning.

The Baluch regions in the three countries have been experiencing a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. Verifying information remains difficult in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan, where violence involving heroin traffickers has occurred for decades.

The province is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the region’s predominantly Sunni Muslim residents and Iran’s Shiite theocracy have long been tense. Typical attacks are hit-and-run attacks by militants in the region, such as the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, killing a few security officials at a time.

However, there have been mass attacks by militants in the past. In April, gunmen wearing explosive vests attacked several locations in the province, killing 10 people before security forces shot 18 militants. Last December, a new attack killed 11 people and injured eight others.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said they are investigating reports that Afghan migrants were killed by Iranian security forces in the region earlier in October, an incident that threatened to further strain relations between the nations.