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.



Death Toll from US Winter Storms Grows to 14

HYDEN, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 17: A flooded road that leads to a neighborhood is seen on February 17, 2025 in Hyden, Kentucky. (Photo by Jon Cherry / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
HYDEN, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 17: A flooded road that leads to a neighborhood is seen on February 17, 2025 in Hyden, Kentucky. (Photo by Jon Cherry / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
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Death Toll from US Winter Storms Grows to 14

HYDEN, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 17: A flooded road that leads to a neighborhood is seen on February 17, 2025 in Hyden, Kentucky. (Photo by Jon Cherry / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
HYDEN, KENTUCKY - FEBRUARY 17: A flooded road that leads to a neighborhood is seen on February 17, 2025 in Hyden, Kentucky. (Photo by Jon Cherry / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

The death toll from powerful winter storms in the central and eastern United States has risen to at least 14, officials said Monday, after floods, gale-force winds and bitterly cold temperatures swept the region.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned on Monday of a winter storm system carrying arctic air that would cause "record cold," with wind chill expected to hit as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit (-51 degrees Celsius) in Montana and North Dakota.

"I've got more tough news. The death toll in Kentucky has now risen to 12," said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear in a social media post on Monday, raising the toll from eight a day earlier.

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey said on Monday his state had also seen at least one death from the weather, AFP reported.

"We have one confirmed fatality at this time," he told a press briefing, warning that further flooding was expected. "There are still several people who are missing."

In addition, one person died in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. The victim was killed when an "extremely large" tree fell on his house early Sunday, fire official Scott Powell told local media.

Most of the dead in Kentucky, Beshear said in an earlier news conference, drowned when trapped in their vehicles by fast-rising floodwaters. The victims included a mother and her child.

The governor urged people to stay off roads across the state, where local and federal authorities have declared a state of emergency.

Beshear said more than 1,000 people had been rescued by first responders within 24 hours.

In its Monday advisory, the NWS warned that the cold weather system would impact a vast area, sending temperatures tumbling in the central plains, the eastern seaboard and as far south as the Gulf coast.

"A bitter cold arctic airmass is expected to continue impacting the north-central US while also spreading further south and east over the next few days," the advisory said.

Power to thousands of homes had been restored by Monday, but more than 50,000 customers remained without electricity in the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, according to monitoring website poweroutage.us.