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Subscriptions help us deliver original coverage of the region's most important issues.The story: Sunni Baluchi militant group Jaish Ul-Adl has attacked a police station in southeastern Iran, killing at least 11 officers. This is the group’s second deadly assault on a police outpost in the area this year. In the wake of the bloodshed, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has criticized Pakistan’s border security measures, alleging that militants crossed the frontier into Iran to carry out the attack. Vahidi has also charged that Israel backs Jaish Ul-Adl.
Incidentally, the day after the attack, Iran announced the execution of an unnamed individual convicted of spying for Israel.
The coverage: Iranian state media reported that 11 officers were killed and seven wounded when Jaish Ul-Adl members attacked a police station in Rask, Sistan-Baluchestan Province in the early hours of Dec. 15.
Two days after the attack, Interior Minister Vahidi traveled to the Sunni-majority southeastern province and vowed vengeance.
The day after the attack, on Dec. 16, Iran’s judiciary announced that an unnamed individual in Sistan-Baluchestan Province had been executed for allegedly spying for Israel.
The attack in Rask has been condemned by Iranian officials as well as the United Nations.
Influential Sunni cleric and establishment critic Abdolhamid Esmailzehi offered his condolences to the families of the victims in his Friday prayer sermons in provincial capital Zahedan just hours after the attack.
Government-run Iran daily on Dec. 16 criticized Esmailzehi for not explicitly condemning the attack.
The context/analysis: Iran and Pakistan share a 900 km (559 miles) border that has proven difficult to control. Various militant and insurgent groups operate in the isolated expanse between the two neighbors.
Jaish Ul-Adl is an offshoot of the Salafist militant group Jundullah. It has long been active in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province but is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan.
The attack on Dec. 15 was Jaish Ul-Adl’s second—and deadliest—assault on a police station in Sistan-Baluchestan this year.
Esmailzehi is widely seen as the spiritual leader of the Iranian Baluch. The Sunni community is centered in Sistan-Baluchestan Province and accounts for up to 2M of Iran’s population of 85M. This influence has made entirely dismissing or even jailing Esmailzehi a risk for the authorities.
The future: The porous border between Iran and Pakistan has presented the two countries with similar challenges.
Iran also faces militant groups in its Kurdish-majority regions. Tehran has responded to attacks by Kurdish actors by targeting their positions inside Iraq. In parallel, major political pressure has been exerted to compel Iraqi Kurdish authorities to move Iranian Kurdish opposition groups away from the border.