At least 10 officers killed in attack on Iranian police convoy; Authorities say no suspects have been identified

At least 10 officers were killed in Saturday’s attack on an Iranian police convoy in the country’s restive southern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, authorities said.

Details are lacking about the attack in Gohar Kuh, about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Iran’s capital Tehran.

Initially, reports simply described the attack by “rogues”, with no additional information. However, shortly afterwards, Iranian state media reported that 10 officers had been killed.

HalVash, a Baloch support group in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, released photos and video of a disabled truck painted with a green stripe used by Iranian police vehicles. One graphic photo shared by the group showed what appeared to be the bodies of two police officers in the front seat of a truck.

HalVash said two security forces vehicles were targeted and all occupants were killed. The truck appeared to be damaged only by bullets and not by the use of explosives.

State news agency IRNA reported that Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni had ordered an investigation into the incident, which it described as resulting in the “martyrdom of many policemen.”

Authorities have not identified any immediate suspects in the attack and no group has claimed responsibility. The attack came later Israel launched a major attack on Iran early Saturday morning.

Baloch regions in all three countries have been facing a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for over two decades. Verifying information remains difficult in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan, which have been the site of violence involving heroin traffickers for decades.

The province is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the region’s mostly Sunni Muslim inhabitants and Iran’s Shiite theocracy have long been tense. Typical attacks include hit-and-run attacks by militants in the region, such as the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, that kill several security officers at once.

However, they did happen mass attacks by fighters in the past. In April, gunmen wearing explosive vests attacked several locations in the province, killing 10 people before security forces shot dead 18 militants. Last December, another attack killed 11 people and injured eight others.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said it was investigating reports that Iranian security forces in the region murdered Afghan migrants in early October, threatening to further strain relations between the nations.