Reports from Iran say seven people -- including three high-ranking Iranian police officials -- have been killed in a plane crash while traveling to the country’s southeast to investigate militant attacks on security forces.
Those killed include the deputy chief of Iran’s police inspectorate, two other police commanders, and four passengers on the plane belonging to the national police.
The group was traveling from Tehran to Zahedan, the capital of the restive province of Sistan-Baluchistan, to investigate attacks since October 8 that have killed five members of Iran’s security forces.
The wreckage of the plane was found in a mountainous area on the morning of October 12.
A border police commander said the plane was not shot down by a missile or other weapons.
Sistan-Baluchistan Province often experiences violence involving Sunni extremists and drug smugglers.
It has a large Sunni Muslim community in an otherwise predominantly Shi’ite country.