Iran military clashes with armed men on Afghan border

Local sources on the border between Iran and Afghanistan said that there have been clashes between the Iranian border guards and unknown armed men in an area bordering Nimruz province of Afghanistan.

According to the local people in the areas located between Iran and Afghanistan, clashes have recently taken place between Iranian border guards and the unknown armed men in Sikhsar region in Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan Province on the border with Nimruz province of Afghanistan.

According to local people, the clashes came after the unknown armed men made troubles for Iranian farmers whose lands cross a border wall that Iran recently built to curb smuggling and drug trafficking from the Afghan side of the border but some pieces of land belonging to the Iranian farmers were divided by the wall.

Meanwhile, it was reported recently that armed men fired on Iranian farmers, puncturing the tires of a number of their tractors because they misunderstood the wall and the activities of the Iranian farmers on their own lands.

The armed men reportedly deployed a lot of their gangs to the area on Wednesday morning and started firing at the positions of the Iranian border guards, which was followed by a response from the land forces of the Iranian army, and the Their positions were hit back by artillery. 

The clashes are reported to have ceased now.

A source familiar with the matter dismissed reports on falling to Iranian border checkpoints to the armed men during the clashes as totally false. No casualties have also been reported among the Iranian border guards.

Brigadier General Mollashahi, Sistan and Baluchestan border commander, has said that the peace is re-established in the area now.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in response to reports of clashes in the Sistan and Balochistan-Nimroz border, “This evening, a dispute between people who reside on the border caused gunfire in the Sistan border area, which was handled and ended with the coordination of the border guards on both sides.”

Deputy Governor of Sistan and Baluchestan, Marashi, has said that as the talks began between the two sides the clashes ended. He also pointed out that no one was injured in the clashes.