The chief of the State Security Forces (SSF) in Iran's south-eastern city of Iranshahr was killed during armed clashes with "bandits", the official news agency reported on Thursday.The report quoted an anonymous SSF official as saying that Colonel Gholam-Hossein Jafari was shot and killed during a skirmish in the suburbs of the village of Delgan, close to Iranshahr. One of the bandits was also killed, it said.
Iranshahr is situated in the impoverished province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan which has been a hotbed of anti-government activities since 2005. In recent months, Iranian authorities have stepped up executions in the province in what many Baluchis believe is a response to a spate of attacks by dissidents on government and security officials.