A Baluch armed group said it carried out an attack on Iran's Revolutionary Guards personnel near Zahedan, a day after Iranian state media reported that several members had been killed during a border security mission in the restive southeast.
Haalvsh, a rights group that documents abuses and unrest in Sistan-Baluchestan, said the Jebhe-ye Mobaarezin-e Mardomi (People’s Fighters Front) claimed responsibility in a statement posted overnight. The group said it targeted a convoy of the IRGC’s Imam Hossein battalion, part of the Salman Brigade, in the Lar district on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the group said the attack was meant as retaliation for what it described as the role of security forces in suppressing residents in Sistan-Baluchestan. He said a vehicle carrying the unit’s commander was struck and that four members were killed and several others wounded.
State-linked media initially reported three dead and three wounded but later said the death toll had risen to four. Haalvsh cited local sources as saying the gunfire occurred as several IRGC vehicles were heading toward their base in the Lar area.
Iran’s southeast, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long experienced armed attacks on security forces and government sites. The region has seen repeated incidents this year, including a major assault on a courthouse in Zahedan earlier in which nine people were killed. A separate Baluch Sunni militant group, Jaish al-Adl, claimed responsibility for that attack.
Authorities said pursuit operations were underway following Wednesday’s shooting, but have released few details so far.
“In the F-35 fighter jet crash case, an official informed us it had happened, and we reported it exactly as given,” Peyman Jebeli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said in a speech at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Tuesday.
“Were we in the sky to know an F-35 had crashed? Were we behind the air defenses to know we hit an F-35? An official military authority informed us that it had happened, and we reflected it exactly as given. Later, for some reasons, they realized the information was not reliable,” he added.
On June 13, news spread in Iranian media that Iran had targeted an Israeli F-35 fighter jet and captured the Israeli female pilot. Locations such as Varamin, Tabriz and Kermanshah were cited as crash sites. Israel swiftly denied the reports.
“Yes, the media should not tie its credibility to other institutions, but when vital information is held by them, we have no choice but to operate within that framework,” Jebeli said.
On June 14, state TV aired the news, saying, “The Air Defense Force successfully struck and destroyed two F-35 fighter jets of the Zionist regime.” More than four days later, IRIB confirmed the report was not correct, offering no further explanation.
Asked about official polls on alleging the buoyant popularity of state TV inside Iran, Jebeli said that no polls had been fabricated but viewership is steadily declining.
“We never claimed our audience surged. The downward trend in viewership has continued since the early 2010s, though its slope has slowed,” he added.
