IRGC commander wounded in roadside bombing, state media says

Local officials blamed a terror group linked to Al Qaeda

(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 22, 2018 shows members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) marching during the annual military parade which markins the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in the capital Tehran. Iran's top security body called an urgent meeting on January 3, 2020 over the "martyrdom" of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani by the United States in Baghdad, semi-official news agency ISNA reported. The United States announced earlier that it had killed the commander of the Islamic republic's Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, in a strike on Baghdad's international airport early on Friday. / AFP / afp / STRINGER
Powered by automated translation

A roadside bombing in south-east Iran has wounded a commander of the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, a semi-official news agency reported on Tuesday.

The report by the Isna news agency did not provide further details on the attack except to say the commander’s vehicle had struck the roadside bomb, setting it off.

The agency quoted Fadahossein Maleki, a politician from the Sistan-Baluchistan province near the Pakistani border where the attack took place, as blaming a Sunni separatist group affiliated with Al Qaida, known as Jeish Al Adl, for allegedly being behind the attack.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing and Isna did not identify the wounded Revolutionary Guard commander.

Jeish Al Adl — or Army of Justice in English — has been behind several attacks in Iran in recent years. Iran says it operates from across the border in Pakistan.

The south-east Sistan-Baluchistan province has been the scene of occasional clashes between government forces and militants, as well as armed drug smugglers.

In 2019, a suicide car bomber claimed by Jeish Al Adl attacked a bus carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard force, killing 27 troops.