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Iran Hangs Three Baluch Men over 2019 'Terrorist Attacks'

A photo published by Mizan agency of the unrest in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan province, on July 8.
A photo published by Mizan agency of the unrest in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan province, on July 8.
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Iran Hangs Three Baluch Men over 2019 'Terrorist Attacks'

A photo published by Mizan agency of the unrest in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan province, on July 8.
A photo published by Mizan agency of the unrest in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan province, on July 8.

Iran hanged on Monday three men who were convicted of carrying out “terrorist activities” in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the judiciary said.

According to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, the three Baluch men are Mohammad Barahouyi Anjomani, Mohammad Karim Barkazayi Akson and Edris Bilrani who were sentenced to death on charges of corruption and participating in terrorist acts.

They were also found guilty of being part of the Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) group, which was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” organization, according to Mizan.

The Army of Justice group says it is a “resistance movement” fighting for the ethnic rights of the Baluch.

The three men were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of bombing attacks targeting a police station and a patrol vehicle in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, in 2019.

Also, bomb-making tools were confiscated in one of the convicts’ houses during a search, AFP reported.

The chief justice of Sistan and Baluchestan province Ali Mostafavinia said the provincial amnesty committee opposed a proposal to pardon the three convicts.

In September, gunmen carried out an attack in the province killing two policemen.

On Monday, Iran's official IRNA news agency said a conscript was killed and two others injured in a confrontation with an armed group near the border with Pakistan.

Bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, the province of Sistan and Baluchestan is the scene of frequent clashes between police on the one hand, and drug traffickers and opposition Baluch groups on the other.

More than 600 people have been executed by Iran so far this year, already the highest figure in eight years, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group in a November report.

“The international community must react to more than 600 executions in 10 months — that's two state murders a day,” said IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

The IHR's tally of 604 executions so far this year is already higher than the 582 recorded in 2022, and the most since 2015 when it registered 972 executions.

Activists have expressed dismay over the surge in drug-related executions after previously falling due to amendments in Iran's criminal code.

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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP

A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.
The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China, AFP reported.
"The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps," it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC's staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and a staff of around 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years.
A measure to extend funding for the center was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans.
It also came under fire from Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."
The GEC's leaders have pushed back on those views, calling their work crucial to combating foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had loudly objected to the original budget bill that would have kept GEC funding, though without singling out the center. The billionaire is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a "sharp contraction" in freedom of speech around the world.