IRANIAN MILITARY HELICOPTER CRASH CLAIMS GENERAL, PILOT

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An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and pilot were killed in a helicopter crash during an anti-terror operation in the country’s restive southeast, state media reported on Monday.

According to the IRNA news agency, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “ultra-light gyroplane” “had an accident while conducting combat operations” in a border region.

It stated that the incident occurred in the city of Sirkan in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan and named the deceased as IRGC ground forces pilot Hamed Jandaghi and General Hamid Mazandarani, commander of the Nineveh Brigade of Golestan province.

Since ten police officers were murdered in an attack claimed by Sunni Muslim extremists on October 26, Iran’s military has been conducting operations in the area.

Iranian media sites claim that during the operation, they had killed a number of militants and detained others.

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One of the most destitute provinces in the Islamic republic is Sistan-Baluchistan, which shares borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In contrast to the nation’s predominately Shiite populace, it is home to a sizable population of the Baluch minority, an ethnic group dispersed throughout Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan that practices Sunni Islam.

Conflicts between Iranian security forces and drug traffickers, extreme Sunni organizations, and Baluch minority insurgents have frequently occurred in the area.

Iran seldom has helicopter mishaps, but in May, former president Ebrahim Raisi was murdered when his chopper crashed into a cliff, sparking early elections.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister at the time, and six other individuals were assassinated along with the ultra-conservative president.