Two Iranian border guards and a paramilitary officer were killed in a shooting incident, sources on the two sides said Friday, as Tehran said rebels tried to infiltrate the country. "Several rebels" also died in the fighting Thursday night, Iran's news agency ISNA quoted a military official as saying, adding that a car and weapons were seized.
Meanwhile, an official in Pakistan said a paramilitary officer was killed and four soldiers wounded when their vehicle came under fire by Iranian border guards. "The FC (Frontier Corps) patrol was chasing two suspects in a car when the Iranian border guards opened fire from across the border, killing one junior commissioned officer and wounding four soldiers," spokesman Wasey Khan told AFP.
The home secretary of Balochistan province, Akbar Hussain Durrani, confirmed the incident and the casualties. It was not clear if the car being pursued by the Pakistanis was the same one seized after the shooting incident across the border. Balochistan is adjacent to the Iranian province of Sistan-Balochistan, where ISNA said the shooting occurred and where rebel attacks earlier this month killed five people, four of them security forces. Iranian media said 14 people were arrested in connection with those attacks.