Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) killed six "armed bandits" in the country's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the IRGC said in a statement on January 1.
Three local members of the volunteer Basij militia fighting alongside the IRGC forces were killed in the clashes, the statement said, adding that at least five “bandits” were wounded.
Sistan-Baluchistan, one of Iran’s poorest provinces, is a volatile area near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan where drug smugglers and militant groups operate.
On December 31, the IRGC shot dead three men believed to have been involved in a deadly attack that left two guards dead on December 25, Iranian media reported.
