Iran: Military on Full Alert to Counter ISIL Threat on Iranian Borders

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said in the city of Yazd today that the country’s armed forces are on full alert to counter any threats by ISIL on Iranian borders. Alavi added that ISIL wants to destabilize Iran but they have not reached their goals and the ministry of intelligence is monitoring their moves closely. (IRNA, 13 June)

During their thunderous advance in Iraq last year, ISIL insurgents captured Jalula, coming within 14 miles of the Iraqi city of Khanaqin on the Iranian border. They held the town until November when Iran-led coalition forces retook Jalula and the adjunct town of Sadiyah and pushed the insurgents out of the area. Alavi did not say if ISIL insurgents were planning or conducting operations near the Iranian borders.

File photo: Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi (FNA)

Iran Increases Security at Western Borders

No Chance for Islamic State to ‘Pose Any Threat’ - Iran

Iran said today it has strengthened its border guard units deployed at Ilam and Kermanshah provinces, bordering Iraq, to counter any attack by the Islamic State militants who control parts of Diyala near the Iranian border. 

“The Islamic Republic border guards deployed at the borders use state-of-the art tools and optical equipment to monitor the smallest moves along the border,” said Brig. Gen. Lotfali Pakbaz, the commander of border guards in Ilam province.

“The guards are watching the country’s borders so carefully that there has not remain any chance for the Takfiri terrorist groups, including the Islamic State, to pose any threat for Iran,” Gen. Pakbaz added. (Fars News Agency, 4 October)

Photo credit: Iranian border guards (FNA)

  

Iranian Border Guards End Large-Scale Drills

The Iranian border guards today ended their four-day wargames in the four western provinces bordering Iraq, Khouzestan, Ilam, Kermanshah and Kurdistan. The exercises, codenamed ‘Eqtedar 3’, involved some 4,000 border guards and training in weapons, tactics, counter-terrorism and counter-smuggling, Fars News Agency reported.

“The objective of the drills were enhancing border guards power in confronting threat,” said Brig. Gen. Hossein Zolfaqari, border guards commander.

Gen. Zolfaqari did not elaborate what particular threats the guards could be confronting in near future. The New York Times, however, reported that the security situation in Iraq was deteriorating, with Sunni insurgents closing in on western outskirts of Baghdad.

The ‘Eqtedar 3’ exercises could probably mean that Iran is concerned of any spillover effects of the security situation in the neighboring Iraq.

Photo credit: An Iranian border guard at Iraq border (FNA)

Iran Border Guards Still Held by Baluch Militants

Iranian Interior Ministry said today that the five border guards abducted on 6 February by Baluch militants are still held by their captors. Last week, IRGC Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, Armed Forces General Staff deputy for Basij Affairs, had announced that the guards, believed to be held in Pakistani Baluchistan, were rescued during a Pakistani military operation.

“The country’s five border guards recently abducted and transferred to neighboring Pakistan are unharmed and in good health,” Interior Ministry spokesman Hossein Ali Amiri said.(Fars News Agency, 4 March)

The militant group Jeish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”), the apparent successor to Jundallah, has claimed responsibility for the abductions, and in statements posted in its website has set several conditions for their release, including the release of its 50 prisoners in Iran, as well as 50 female militants and 200 other Sunni militants imprisoned in Syria. (Fars News Agency, 4 March)

Photo credit: A photo of five Iranian border guards held by Jaish al-Adl, presumably held in Pakistani side of Baluchistan; published in group’s website on 9 February.

Remains of slain NAJA border guards flown into Mashhad

NAJA honor guard bearing coffins of slain NAJA border protection force members, victims of terrorism

Weary NAJA border protection force pall bearer; behind him Iran Police Aviation Antonov (HESA) An-140, reg 2202 (cn 9003).

Mourners lining the procession of the slain, Shahid Hashemi Nejad Airport (MHD / OIMM) at Mashhad

IRI flag-draped coffins inside Iran Police Aviation Antonov (HESA) An-140

 

This is not the first time Iran has been the target of terrorism leading up to nuclear negotiations with the P5+1. The terror group Jundallah struck at Sistan-Baluchistan province in December 2010 during the run-up to nuclear negotiations for January 2011.

Photos: Jafar Kaboutari at MEHR News Agency

Iran Investigating Deadly Attack on Border Post in Baluchistan

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today ordered the government and the Supreme National Security Council to undertake full investigation into a raid by an armed rebel group on an Iranian border guard checkpoint at Rutak, near the town of Saravan, which left 17 guards killed, 5 wounded and 4 taken hostage.

The Iranian parliament, Majlis, also held a closed-door emergency meeting today on the attack and later announced that Majlis’ National Intelligence and Security Committee members will travel to the area to investigate the incident and report back to Majlis.

Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned the Charge d'affaires of Pakistan to protest the existence of group's sanctuary across the border inside Pakistani Baluchistan.   

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency had reported earlier that armed rebels (‘yaghis’, also referred to as bandits) had killed 17 Iranian border guards on Friday during a night raid on a police station in Rutak near the town of Saravan, with 5 guards wounded and 4 taken hostage. Fars also reported that the Iranian Baluch insurgent group Jaish ul-Adl (“Army of Justice”), which was reportedly formed last year, has taken responsibility for the attack.

Today, EA WorldView’s Managing Editor Joanna Paraszczuk wrote that on 12 October the group had posted news to their blog stating they had carried out a successful attack against an Iranian checkpoint in Rutak, killing more than a dozen border guards. The group wrote that the operation lasted for over an hour and that the Iranian security forces, including military helicopters, intervened and surrounded the area. Jaish ul-Adl (JA) threatened further attacks if the security forces did not leave the area.

It is unclear whether today’s report by the Iranian authorities of an attack by JA on Rutak was the new operation that the group had threatened to undertake, or the authorities now wanted to disclose the 12 October event but saying it happened last night. In March, Jaish ul-Adl claimed responsibility for another attack on IRGC personnel in Saravan. (EA WorldView, 26 October)

Jaish ul-Adl rebels and activists supporting their cause have used social media to publicize their involvement in the attack in the mountains above Saravan in Sistan Baluchestan Province. The group has also posted a video of the attack to its Facebook account. 

The biggest Baluch rebel group, the Jundallah, was the first to wage armed rebellion against the central government in Tehran. Hundreds of lives from both sides, the Baluch rebels and the security forces, have been lost in the past decade.

Earlier today, the official Iranian news agency IRNA had reported that Iran hanged 16 jailed "terrorists" to avenge the attack on its police station.

File photo: Members of Jaish ul-Adl armed rebel group (EA WorldView) 

Iran Hangs 16 'Rebels' To Avenge Deadly Border Attack

Iran has hanged 16 “rebels” in retaliation for the death of 14 border guards who were killed on Friday in clashes at Saravan in Iranian Baluchistan, official news agency IRNA reported today.

IRNA also reported the authorities are investigating whether the attackers were “drug smugglers or armed terrorist groups.”

“These individuals were executed this Saturday morning in response to the terrorist action of last evening at Saravan and the martyrdom of the border guards,” said Mohammad Marzieh, spokesman for Judiciary in Baluchistan. (IRNA, 26 October)

The authorities did not explain why they hanged 16 members of a “terrorist” group, who were already in jail, in “retaliation” of the actions of a group whom they said could be drug smugglers. And why should a government execute its prisoners in retaliation for actions of others, whoever they may be?

The official news agencies reported that a band of rebels or smugglers attacked the border post near Saravan on Friday night and killed as many as 20 border guards. The attackers retreated to their sanctuaries across the border. 

“The attackers, who saw that conditions were unsafe for their actions, retreated to the country opposite (the border) after the clash,” Rajab Ali Sheikhzadeh, a provincial official, told ISNA.

The tri-state area where the attack took place joins the Baluch regions of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The area has a long history of unrest where the Iranian Baluch group Jundallah has waged an armed rebellion against Tehran for what it conceives as suppression of the rights of the Sunni Baluch minority in the hand of Shia majority. Many Jundallah rebels as well as members of security forces have lost their lives in recent years.

The area is also home to large drug trafficking operations, transporting condensed opiate-based “bricks” from Helmand and southern Afghanistan through Iran and on to Kurdish areas in Turkey and eventually to Europe. The bricks are then converted into heroine varieties. Some trafficking also takes place from northern Afghanistan through Khorasan. Clashes between the smugglers and Iranian security forces occur when the transshipments are not pre-arranged. In the past decade, hundreds of Iranian border guards and security forces have lost their lives fighting the drug smugglers.

File photo: Patrolling the long, desolate Iran-Afghanistan border (IRIN)

Iran Expresses Regret for Shooting Afghan Migrants

Iran has expressed regret for the shooting deaths of Afghan migrants entering the country illegally over the weekend. On Saturday, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul issued a complaint after 10 migrants were shot and killed by Iranian border guards.

Iran’s new foreign minister spokesman Abbas Aragchi expressed Iran’s regret.

“We express regret while offering sympathy to relatives of victims if innocent people were harmed when passing through Iran illegally,” said Aragchi. (AP, 14 May)

Iran initially denied that anyone was shot. Poor Afghans sneak into Iran in search for work, often as day laborers. About 2 million Afghan migrants have been working in Iran since the late 1970s.

Photo credit: Afghan refugees leave Iran for Turkey (AP/The National, 14 May)