Five Iranian forces were killed in a militant attack near the Pakistan-Iran border on Sunday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. According to the report, the dead were ethnic Baluch members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's volunteer Basij force who were killed in Saravan, Sistan and Baluchistan. Saravan is about 1,400 kilometres southeast of Tehran.

However, there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. Earlier today, state TV reported that Revolutionary Guard forces killed three terrorists and arrested nine more during a military operation. The report didn’t mention which group the suspects were from.

Last month, four people were killed by unknown gunmen, including the province's Revolutionary Guard chief. Two separate attacks in September killed four border guards in Sistan and Baluchistan province. The militant group Jaish al-Adl, which advocates for greater rights for the ethnic Baluch minority, claimed responsibility for one attack in which one officer and two soldiers were killed.

The province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has seen occasional deadly clashes between militant groups, armed drug smugglers, and Iranian security forces. It is one of Iran's most underdeveloped areas. Relations between the region's majority Sunni Muslim population and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been strained.