Armed men riding two motorcycles attacked the Bir Sofla school in Bir village, in the Kahir district of Konarak County in Sistan and Baluchestan province, at approximately 4 p.m. local time, Haalvsh said.
The attackers opened fire on Fatemiyoun members stationed inside the building, killing at least seven and wounding several others, including two critically, according to the report.
Haalvsh said a car followed the motorcycles into the village as fighting continued. At least one assailant was killed and his body was removed by security forces, it reported. The wounded were transported by ambulance to hospitals in Chabahar and Iranshahr.
The Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Tasnim news agency offered a different account, reporting that an armed group it identified as Jaish al-Adl had attempted to attack army personnel in Konarak.
Tasnim said security forces killed one attacker and forced others to flee wounded. It did not report any deaths among the personnel targeted.
Fatemiyoun is an Afghan Shiite militia operating under the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. The conflict-monitoring organization ACLED, citing local sources, has reported its deployment at military and Basij facilities and checkpoints across the province.
Haalvsh previously reported that more than 20 Fatemiyoun members were killed or wounded during prolonged fighting in Taftan County on October 13. That casualty figure could not be independently verified.
A series of deadly attacks
Monday’s confrontation follows repeated attacks on security personnel and installations across the province.
On October 27, Haalvsh reported that armed assailants attacked a police support headquarters and Police Station 12 in Khash, triggering prolonged gunfire.
Earlier, on October 7, gunmen attacked police headquarters in Golshan County using explosives and rocket-propelled grenades. The following day, separate attacks targeted police personnel near Nosratabad and a vehicle carrying army personnel near Nikshahr.
On October 14, a commander of a women’s Basij unit and a police officer were killed in separate shootings in Mehrastan County, according to Tasnim.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, documented at least 63 armed incidents across Sistan and Baluchestan and neighboring Kerman between March 31 and October 10, leaving at least 94 people dead and 33 wounded. Its tally covered armed attacks and security operations, with 18 incidents recorded during the final 18 days of that period.
Jaish al-Adl joined other Baluch armed factions in December 2025 to form the People’s Fighters Front, known by its Persian initials JMM. The coalition claimed six of the incidents documented by HRANA, while most remained unattributed or could not reliably be linked to a particular group.
ACLED separately recorded approximately 70 armed confrontations between armed groups and Iranian security forces in Sistan and Baluchestan during 2026 by early October, the highest annual figure in at least a decade.
Poverty and longstanding grievances
The violence has unfolded in a region marked by economic deprivation and grievances among its predominantly Sunni Baluch population.
In an August 2025 report, the International Crisis Group described Sistan and Baluchestan as Iran’s most deprived province by most measures, citing unemployment, poor infrastructure and unequal access to public services.
Drawing on Iranian official data, the organization reported that approximately 30% of provincial households experienced severe deprivation. Unemployment stood at 12.4% in 2023–2024, compared with 8.1% nationally.
Baluch activist and journalist Khalilullah Balochi previously told Iran International that economic deprivation, ethnic and religious discrimination and repression were central drivers of armed mobilization. He argued that militarization had deepened the grievances behind recruitment.
Source: www.iranintl.com
