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IRGC Commander Survives Assassination Attempt in Sistan-Baluchestan

Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)
Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)
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IRGC Commander Survives Assassination Attempt in Sistan-Baluchestan

Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)
Annual military parade on National Army Day in Iran (AFP)

Gunmen have attacked the car of a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), killing one of his bodyguards, according to state media.

Saturday’s report identified the dead man as Mahmoud Absalan, the bodyguard of Brigadier-General Hossein al-Massi, who survived the ambush in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Absalan is the son of General Parviz Absalan, another IRGC commander in the region.

The state-owned news agency, IRNA, reported that the "criminals" opened fire at a checkpoint in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, and security forces arrested those behind the attack.

The incident coincided with the celebrations marking the Revolutionary Guard's establishment anniversary.

The Iranian media did not identify the names or number of attackers.

Sistan-Baluchestan is located in the southeast of Iran, a region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has been the site of clashes between separatists from the Baluchi minority, other armed groups, and Iranian forces.

Many clashes are linked to the smuggling operations, making it an area for clashes between separatists from the Baluch minority or extremist groups operating in that region.

Tehran has previously accused Islamabad of supporting them.

In January, the IRGC announced that three of its mobilization members were among nine people killed in a clash with "armed criminals" in the same region a month after troops killed a gunman who attacked the IRGC's rural intelligence office.

On November 18, the official Iranian media reported the death of three security forces members, including a colonel, during a clash with "criminals" in Sistan-Baluchestan.

Last year, four members of the Iranian Guard were killed during an armed clash in the same province.

The predominantly Sunni Sistan-Baluchestan province has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and Sunni militants fighting the country's Shiite authorities.

Many of Iran's Sunnis complain of discrimination, a charge denied by the state.

In 2009, a suicide bomber killed six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and more than 29 other people in Sistan-Baluchestan, in one of the boldest attacks on Iran's most powerful military institutions.

A high-ranking Iranian official announced Thursday that Iran would not abandon its plans to avenge the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of IRGC's al-Quds Force, in 2020, despite Washington's "offers" to lift sanctions and make other concessions.

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Millions of Children to Suffer from Trump Aid Cuts

Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
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Millions of Children to Suffer from Trump Aid Cuts

Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File

When he grows up, five-year-old Ahmad wants to be "stronger than Spider-Man".
But his dream clashes with a harsh reality -- the Jordanian boy has a serious disability, and major US aid cuts mean he will likely miss out on vital care.
Like him, millions of children around the world are suffering from the sweeping cuts ordered by US President Donald Trump.
All are grappling with hardship in one form or other: war, crime, global warming, poverty, disease and more.
Ahmad, who has a spinal malformation, cannot hold his torso upright and is paralyzed from the waist down.
The boy was receiving physiotherapy sessions from Handicap International "to strengthen his upper limbs and enable him, later on, to walk with crutches," said his father, Mahmud Abdulrahman, a 30-year-old day laborer.
Abdulrahman said the non-governmental organization was also due to provide orthotics and prosthetics to straighten Ahmad's lower limbs -- none of which he could afford on his meagre salary.
Now, none of that will happen.
The Wehdat Rehabilitation Center they attended in Jordan's capital Amman was one of the first victims of Trump's aid cuts.
More than 600 patients found themselves deprived of care overnight.
Prosthetics already specially designed for around 30 children, as well as wheelchairs, could not be delivered to them, on Washington's orders.
"The movement that was taught will be forgotten," said Dr Abdullah Hmoud, a physiotherapist who worked at the center, describing the potential losses as "catastrophic".
There is also emotional suffering.
When he realized he would no longer see his physiotherapist, "Ahmad stopped eating for three days. He didn't want to get up," said his father.
With the closure of his rehabilitation center, "I feel like they want to kill me," the boy said in a hushed voice.
Global fallout
Ahmad's story is one among many in a wave of horror accounts surfacing from the humanitarian sector since the United States said it was cutting 83 percent of its aid.
USAID -- which the Trump administration has dismantled -- had supported 42 percent of all aid distributed globally, with a $42.8 billion budget.
At a refugee camp in Bangladesh, home to a million Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar, half of them children, Save the Children has been forced to ration food.
The NGO fears desperate families could be pushed to hand over daughters to traffickers or send sons on dangerous sea crossings to Malaysia for work.
In Mozambique, Solidarites International had to shut down a program providing food and water to internally displaced people, including tens of thousands of children.
In Malawi, similar numbers will no longer receive free school meals, according to another NGO which requested anonymity for fear of US reprisals.
Without food, many children will drop out of school -- all the more galling, the NGO said, as millions of meals are reportedly left to rot in warehouses due to the US decision.
"It's like the rug is being pulled out from under their feet," said one staff member.
'Last lifelines'
Women and girls are often the first to lose out, with their education traditionally sacrificed first.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said it will have to "significantly reduce" aid to women and girls in Afghanistan because the US funds paid for many of the female staff who worked with them.
"The very last lifelines for many women and girls will be taken away," said Camilla Waszink, a director at the organization.
Malnutrition already affects 150 million children under five, and the numbers could surge.
"Millions of additional children will suffer stunted growth" and impaired brain capacity, said Kevin Goldberg, director of Solidarites International.
In another blow to children, Washington is expected to drastically reduce funding for vaccination programs in poor countries.
Sania Nishtar, CEO of the Vaccine Alliance, warned the cuts -- if confirmed -- could result in "an estimated 1.3 million children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases".