Haalvsh, which covers developments in Sistan-Baluchestan, said five members of the IRGC-Quds’s Fatemiyoun militia were killed in the Rudmahi area near Zahedan after an explosive device detonated beside their vehicle and gunmen opened fire.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards gave a different account, confirming a roadside bombing in the province but saying one fighter was killed. The IRGC Ground Force said what it described as “terrorists” had planted a bomb along a road in Sistan-Baluchestan and carried out an indiscriminate attack.
The Guards did not identify the person killed, mention Fatemiyoun or give a precise location for the incident.
Conflicting accounts of Zahedan attack
Haalvsh said the attack took place at about 6:30 a.m. as the men were patrolling the Kaleh-Pedeh route in the Rudmahi area in a Land Cruiser equipped with a DShK heavy machine gun.
Citing eyewitnesses, the outlet said an explosive device was detonated as the vehicle passed and that gunmen opened fire after the blast destroyed the vehicle.
The identities of those reported killed have not been released.
Haalvsh said local sources continued to put the death toll at five and identified all of those killed as Fatemiyoun members, but said it had not been able to independently verify the precise number of deaths.
Fatemiyoun is a militia linked to the IRGC’s Quds Force and made up largely of Afghan Shiites. It was formed with Iranian support and fought alongside forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s civil war. The United States sanctioned the group in 2019.
Haalvsh said Friday’s incident was the second deadly attack on forces it identified as Fatemiyoun in Rudmahi in less than a month. It reported in September that four members deployed in the area by the IRGC were killed when gunmen attacked them during a patrol.
The outlet has also reported the deployment of hundreds of Fatemiyoun members to several parts of Sistan-Baluchestan, including areas around Zahedan, Mirjaveh, Rask, Saravan, Zabol, Chabahar, Konarak and Iranshahr.
Hours of fighting in Rask
The violence on Friday was not limited to Zahedan.
Haalvsh said Iranian military and security forces moved in Rask county at about 5:30 a.m., triggering fighting with armed men that lasted more than six hours.
Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the confrontation, according to the outlet, which said reinforcements and additional military equipment were sent to the area.
Armored vehicles, pickup trucks and civilian cars with private license plates were seen at the scene, while a vehicle carrying a heavy weapon was also deployed, Haalvsh reported.
Heavy fighting spreads in southeastern Iran, with security force casualties reported
Local sources cited by the outlet said reconnaissance quadcopters and explosive drones were used during the operation.
Haalvsh said the identity and affiliation of the gunmen remained unknown and that no reliable information had emerged about casualties or damage.
IRGC-linked Fars news agency, citing an unnamed source, said security forces had begun an operation against armed groups in Rask on Friday morning and that “a number” of gunmen had been killed. Fars said the operation was continuing.
Intelligence facility targeted
An intelligence ministry facility in Nokabad, the administrative center of Taftan county, was also attacked by gunmen early Friday, according to the Baloch Human Rights Documentation Network.
The group said the attackers fired at the building. Local sources also reported an explosion and said a grenade may have been used.
IRGC says six gunmen killed in clash in Iran’s restive southeast
No casualties or damage were immediately reported, and no individual or group had taken responsibility for the attack.
Fighting follows deadly clash a day earlier
Friday’s incidents came a day after another hours-long confrontation near Zahedan.
On Thursday, the IRGC said six gunmen were killed during fighting with security forces in the Manzelab area. The Guards’ Quds regional headquarters said its forces had identified and “destroyed” what it described as an armed “terrorist-Takfiri” cell that had been preparing an attack.
Haalvsh said that clash began at about 6 a.m. and continued for several hours, with heavy gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade fire heard in the area.
The IRGC said explosive devices were recovered but did not identify the armed group or name those killed.
A police officer, Alireza Sanchouli, was also killed in a separate armed attack on a checkpoint at the entrance to Rask, according to Iranian reports.
At least one person was killed earlier in the week during another confrontation with security forces in Iranshahr.
Last month, a roughly nine-hour battle in the Bakhshan area of Saravan killed three IRGC members and four gunmen. Reports at the time linked the armed side to the People’s Fighters Front, an alliance formed in late 2025 that includes several Baluch armed groups, among them Jaish al-Adl.
Iranian authorities regularly describe armed groups operating in Sistan-Baluchestan as terrorist organizations. The southeastern province has seen repeated armed attacks, insurgent activity and clashes between security forces and gunmen in recent weeks.