On Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had killed 13 alleged militants and arrested several others during coordinated raids across Sistan and Baluchestan, a volatile southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. The operations, carried out in Iranshahr, Khash, and Saravan with intelligence and internal security units, followed a deadly ambush last Friday that left five police officers dead in Iranshahr. The Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for that attack on Telegram.
Several Turkish security-related sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to The Levant Files, called the timing of the new clashes "suspicious" and warned that the uptick in operations inside Iran could be a prelude to broader turmoil. "There are credible indications of fresh attacks and special security operations from inside Iran, especially in highly sensitive areas like Sistan and Baluchestan," one source said. "These may be the messengers of something bigger coming in the period ahead," another added, pointing to heightened regional tensions and sustained media focus on the possibility of a wider Israel-Iran confrontation.
State television, citing the IRGC's public relations office, described Wednesday's actions as three joint operations that killed several armed men labeled "terrorists" and led to multiple arrests. It said some of those targeted were suspected of involvement in last week's ambush. Brigadier General Qasem Rezaei, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Iran's internal security forces, emphasized that border guards maintain constant surveillance and that "no operation is carried out without precise information."
Sistan and Baluchestan, home to a significant Sunni Muslim Baluch minority in Shiite-majority Iran, is one of the country's poorest regions and a frequent flashpoint for clashes between security forces and armed groups. Tehran typically blames Sunni militants, including Jaish al-Adl, as well as separatists and drug traffickers, for attacks on police and the IRGC, the ideological arm of Iran's military.
Wednesday's raids come amid a string of recent security incidents. Earlier this month, according to the Tasnim News Agency, four people were killed while attempting to attack a police station in Saravan; a police officer also died in the incident, which authorities attributed to Jaish al-Adl. On Saturday, Iranian forces said they killed six militants in the province and alleged the group had links to Israel.
The Turkish sources cautioned that while the immediate trigger for Iran's latest operations appears local, the pattern and pace of activity suggest authorities are bracing for, or signaling, a broader confrontation. "Movements in sensitive regions often precede bigger developments," one source said. "We can't rule out more incidents in the coming period."
Independent verification of the details provided by Iranian authorities was not immediately possible. Tehran has not released the identities of those killed or arrested, nor publicly presented evidence linking the suspects to last week's ambush.