November 04, (THEWILL) – An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and pilot have been killed in a helicopter crash during an anti-terror operation in the country’s restive southeast.
The State media, IRNA news agency, reported on Monday that the “ultra-light gyroplane” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “had an accident while conducting combat operations” in a border area.
It said the crash happened in Sirkan, a city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, and identified the dead as General Hamid Mazandarani, the commander of the Nineveh Brigade of Golestan province, and Hamed Jandaghi, a pilot of the IRGC ground forces.
Iran’s armed forces have been mounting an operation in the region since October 26, when 10 police officers were killed in an attack claimed by Sunni Muslim militants.
Sistan-Baluchistan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and is one of the most impoverished provinces in the Islamic Republic. It is home to a large number of the Baluch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who practice Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shiite population.
The province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers.
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