Smoke rises from fighting between Jaish al-Udl insurgents and Iranian security forces in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeast Iran, April 4, 2024

UPDATE, APRIL 11:

The Baluch insurgency group Jaish al-Udl has killed at least six Iranian officers in an ambush of two police vehicles.

Iranian semi-official media reported that several other officers were injured in the attack in the Sib and Suran district in southeastern Iran on the Pakistani border.

Jaish ul-Adl said they targeted “an intelligence operation unit along with special forces”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, APRIL 5: In its most extensive assault in 12 years of operations, the Baluch insurgent group Jaish ul-Adl has attacked two cities in southeast Iran.

Iran’s Interior Ministry said there were battles from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 3 p.m. Thursday in Rask and in the port city of Chabahar in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. It said 10 security officers and 18 insurgents killed, and 44 people were injured.

State TV showed gunmen running in the street amid explosions from rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, with plumes of smoke billowing into the air.

Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi claimed gunmen entered homes and took civilians hostage to use as human shields. He declared that attackers wore vests with explosives and that several blew themselves up.

They did not achieve their ominous goals and failed. Their goal was to seize the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards in Rask and martyr the security forces, and capture the headquarters of the Guards, naval outposts and security forces headquarters in Chabahar.

Videos on State TV and social media showed the walls and ceilings of a Revolutionary Guards security building in Chabahar riddled with bullets and splattered with blood. The bodies of militants lay on the streets and inside buildings, with people stranded in their cars amid the fighting.

A woman in a hospital bed told a state television reporter that her windows were shattered as gunmen threw grenades into homes. A hospitalized man said a fighter spotted him in crossfire on the street and shot him in the hand.

An Insurgency Expands Its Attacks

Jaish ul-Adl was founded in 2012 by members of Jundallah, a Sunni faction whose leader Abdolmalek Rigi was captured and executed by Iranian authorities in 2010. Since October 2013, it has attacked Iran’s military personnel and outposts along the border with Pakistan.

See Sunni Insurgents Jaish ul-Adl Claim Responsibility For Roadside Bomb Attack That Killed 3 IRGC Personnel

In December, an attack on a border police station in Rask killed 11 security officers after Jaish ul-Adl claimed its compound in Pakistan was targeted by the Iranian military.

Weeks later, the Iranian leadership — stung by a double bombing by the Islamic State that killed 94 people and wounded 284 in southeast Iran — fired missiles on Jaish ul-Adl positions in Pakistan. The operation backfired when Pakistan responded with its own cross-border missile strikes.

A Weakened Iran Regime Lashes Out — and Gets Punched in the Nose

Jaish al-Adl said in a statement that 168 of its fighters were involved in Wednesday’s attack. The group said it was trying to stop Iran’s development of the area of Makan, on the shores of the Persian Gulf.