The attack on a road in Sistan and Baluchistan province also injured two other police officers, according to YJC, a website affiliated with state television. The report said the militant group Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack.
Map locating the capital Tehran, Iran. Photo AP
The militants are said to be fighting for greater rights for the region's Baluch ethnic minority. Iran and several other countries consider them a terrorist group.
This is the second attack on security forces in as many weeks, highlighting the deteriorating security situation in the region. Clashes last week in three separate areas of the province left 10 Iranian soldiers and 18 militants dead in the fighting, and six other members of the security forces later died in hospital.
The province borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan and has seen occasional deadly clashes involving militants, armed drug traffickers and Iranian security forces. In December, militants killed nearly a dozen police officers in an attack on a police station in the province.
Sistan and Baluchistan is one of Iran's least developed regions. Relations between the region's predominantly Sunni Muslim population and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been tense.
Mai Van (according to AP)
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