Three killed as Iran suicide bombing rocks police HQ
At least three people died and 48 others were injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police headquarters in Iran’s southeast on Thursday.
Television also reported shooting in the area, located in the region of Sistan-Baluchestan, which is home to a Sunni Muslim minority in the country and has long been plagued by violence from both drug smugglers and separatists.
“Three people were killed and some others were injured,” Rahmdel Bameri, acting governor of the coastal city of Chabahar told state television, which reported the figure of 48 hurt. Mohammed Hadi Marashi, deputy governor for security affairs, told state TV two police officers were among the dead.
Videos posted on Twitter, purportedly from Chabahar, showed thick smoke rising from the area.
“Police stopped the explosiveladen car and started firing at the driver ... who then set off the explosion near the police headquar- ters in Chabahar,” said Bameri. The SITE Intelligence Group reported that Ansar Al-Furqan had claimed responsibility for the attack.
In June, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had killed the group’s suspected leader, Molavi Jalil Qanbar-Zehi, in a mountainous area of Sistan Baluchestan. A year ago the group claimed responsibility for a blast at an oil pipeline in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province.
Suicide bombings are rare in Iran, but militant groups have carried out several attacks on Iranian security forces in the Sistan-Baluchestan province in recent years.
Iran has stepped up security in border areas after gunmen in Sep- tember opened fire on a military parade in Iran’s southwestern city of Ahvaz, killing 25 people, almost half of them members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Last year, in the first deadly assault claimed by Daesh in Tehran, 18 people were killed at the Parliament and mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini.
“Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we’ve made clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished,” Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif tweeted.