Blast Kills One in Restless Iranian Border Area

A picture taken on January 13, 2020 shows a general view of a village in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan region during floods. (AFP)
A picture taken on January 13, 2020 shows a general view of a village in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan region during floods. (AFP)
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Blast Kills One in Restless Iranian Border Area

A picture taken on January 13, 2020 shows a general view of a village in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan region during floods. (AFP)
A picture taken on January 13, 2020 shows a general view of a village in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan region during floods. (AFP)

An explosion killed one person and injured three others on Sunday in a southeastern Iranian town that was the center of bloody unrest last month, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.

A Revolutionary Guards statement quoted by the agency blamed what it called “terrorist” groups for the blast in a square in Saravan, near the border with Pakistan.

Earlier this month a UN human rights spokesman said at least a dozen people and possibly up to 23 had been killed in Saravan and other parts of Sistan-Baluchestan province where Revolutionary Guards and security forces used lethal force against fuel couriers from ethnic minorities, and protesters.

The shooting of people carrying fuel across the border led to protests that spread from Saravan to other areas of Sistan-Baluchestan, including the capital, Zahedan.

Iran has some of the lowest fuel prices in the world and there is some fuel-smuggling to neighboring countries.

The impoverished province has long been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and separatist militants and smugglers carrying opium from Afghanistan, the world’s top producer of the drug.



Russia, Ukraine Complete Second Round of Prisoner Exchange

Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)
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Russia, Ukraine Complete Second Round of Prisoner Exchange

Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)

Russia and Ukraine said Tuesday they had exchanged captured soldiers, the second stage of an agreement struck at peace talks last week for each side to free more than 1,000 prisoners.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday's exchange saw "the return of our injured and severely wounded warriors from Russian captivity."

Neither side said how many soldiers had been freed in the swap -- the second in as many days following another exchange on Monday.

The two sides had agreed in Istanbul last week to release all wounded soldiers and all under the age of 25.

Russia's defense ministry said: "In accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements reached on June 2 in Istanbul, the second group of Russian servicemen was returned."

Zelensky said further exchanges would follow.

"The exchanges are to continue. We are doing everything we can to find and return every single person who is in captivity."

The agreement had appeared in jeopardy over the weekend, with both sides trading accusations of attempting to thwart the exchange.

Russia says Ukraine has still not agreed to collect the bodies of killed soldiers, after Moscow said more than 1,200 corpses were waiting in refrigerated trucks near the border.

Russia said it had agreed to hand over the remains of 6,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers, while Kyiv said it would be an "exchange".

Moscow and Kyiv have carried out dozens of prisoner exchanges since Russia invaded in 2022, triggering Europe's largest conflict since World War II.