Four Iranian Border Guards Wounded In Car Explosion Near Pakistan
Four border guards were injured in a booby trap car bomb near the Mirjaveh border with Pakistan in Iran’s Baluch populated southeast.
Four border guards were injured in a booby trap car bomb near the Mirjaveh border with Pakistan in Iran’s Baluch populated southeast.
According to state news agency IRNA, the condition of three of the injured is stable, but one was transferred to the provincial capital Zahedan for treatment.
Haalvsh website, which covers the events in Sistan-Baluchestan province, earlier reported that a military vehicle was targeted by an explosion in the Shahrak area of the border town of Mirjaveh.
It quoted local sources as saying that the situation is tense, and said military vehicles are patrolling the city. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Last week, an attack on a police station in the Sunni majority city of Zahedan claimed the life of two policemen. According to Iranian law enforcement officials, four gunmen who used hand grenades were also killed.
Tensions in Sistan-Baluchestan have been high since security forces, under the command of the Revolutionary Guards, killed an estimated 80-90 civilian protesters in the city on September 30, which became known as Black Friday.
The US already uses A-10 fighter jets to patrol the strategic waterway, in particular the narrow Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attempts to seize oil tankers navigating in international waters, but it will now deploy additional F-16 jets.
A Pentagon official speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity said the F-16s will be an additional element to deter Iran and provide protection to commercial shipping.
Iran’s latest attempt to interfere with commercial shipping occurred earlier this month when it tried to seize two vessels. The US Navy announced July 5 that it prevented Iranian naval forces from diverting the vessels including the Richmond Voyager, a supertanker managed by Chevron in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrowest part of the Persian Gulf.
The official said that in both cases Iranian forces withdrew as the US Navy arrived on the scene.
Iran has been harassing commercial shipping in recent years and seized multiple vessels since 2019. Over the years, Iranian speedboats also harassed US Navy ships, sometimes in dangerous maneuvers.
“[The] United States will not allow foreign or regional powers to jeopardize freedom of navigation through the Middle East waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters May 12. The US Navy in early June said that Iran had interfered with or attacked 15 internationally flagged merchant ships over the past two years.
Iran’s provocative actions come as attempts to restrict its uranium enrichment and reach a nuclear agreement have remained unsuccessful since President Joe Biden assumed office in January 2021. Iran has expanded military cooperation with Russia, supplying hundreds of kamikaze drones that are being used in Ukraine against civilian and military targets.
The Pentagon official also told reporters the US is concerned about more Russian aggressive actions in Syria in collaboration with Iran and the Syrian government.
Recently Russian warplanes tried to interfere with operations of US military drones that were trying to attack Islamic State group targets in Syria.
The official told reporters that Iran’s supply of drones to Russia and support for the invasion of Ukraine has given political leverage to the Islamic Republic that wants to use the Russians to expel the United States from Syria. The US also believes there is more planning and intelligence sharing cooperation now between Russian and Iranian IRGC forces in Syria to pressure US to withdraw troops from Syria.
Iran also probably wants to use escalatory tactics to force Washington to accept its terms in recent reported diplomatic contacts between the two sides aimed at some sort of a deal over three Americans held hostage by Tehran.
Iran wants Washington to agree to around $20 billion of its funds in third countries to be released, which would be significant for its beleaguered economy. Iraq holds around $10 billion of debts to Iran, while South Korean banks hold another $7 billion.
Pro-Iranian Iraqi Shiite militia groups also organized a protest Friday near the US embassy in Baghdad, demanding non-interference by the United States in Iraq’s internal affairs. Iran however, is deeply enmeshed in Iraqi politics using its proxy forces.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the student activists said they would not accept “military forces, whether in combat or school uniforms, within the university premises".
Vowing to resist their presence, which many fear is an attempt to suppress dissidents in the institution, they said that the university’s atmosphere is already poisoned due to the presence of professors affiliated with the regime and Basij militiamen masquerading as students. They accused the authorities of sidelining students by suspending, removing, and suppressing them, while replacing them with borrowed forces from Iraq.
The activists lamented the university's transformation from a symbol of academic independence to a mere instrument of military tyranny, stating, “The presence of these individuals as university administrators only perpetuates a cycle of crises and disasters. Today, we realize that within the minds of those in power, we are denied the right to study and even the right to exist."
In contrast, the student activists highlighted the plight of imprisoned, expelled, and suspended students, who find themselves unjustly excluded for voicing grievances against the regime, while Hashd al-Shaabi forces gain admission.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi was established back in 2014, following a fatwa to fight ISIS, which controlled four governorates and reached the borders of the capital Baghdad at the time. The Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization is composed of approximately 67 different armed factions, with around 128,000 fighters that are mostly Shia Muslim groups, but also include Sunni Muslim, Christian, and Yazidi groups.
Tehran University's public relations office announced members of Iraq's Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militias and other proxies of the Islamic Republic can study at Iranian universities following a meeting attended between the head of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representatives at the universities and the education deputy of Hashd al-Shaabi.
It has caused outrage among students who also criticized the advantages enjoyed by regime-affiliated students and the rich as well as entrance exam biases, which have discouraged many talented and hardworking individuals from pursuing higher education.
Students hailing from the wealthiest families, and those affiliated with IRGC’s Basij forces as well as those whose family members are war veterans, or what regime calls "martyrs”, have a much greater chance of admission to top universities in Iran, prompting many to blame corruption by the entrance exam ‘mafia’.
The Tehran University students’ statement also emphasized the disparity between the easy entry of members from Hashd al-Shaabi and the obstacles faced by socially and politically marginalized groups within Iranian society. They argued that the university administration's prioritization of military forces over ordinary people and dissidents undermines the principles of equal educational opportunities.
The student movement has played a significant role in the formation and continuation of last year's popular protests, sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in morality police custody. In recent weeks, security forces in Iran have unleashed a fresh wave of crackdowns at universities employing both verbal and physical assault to suppress the student movement.
