Twenty-Seven Die in Militant Attacks on Iran Security Forces, Say Media 

File photo: Protesters clash with police after taking to the streets in Tehran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, September 21. (AFP)
File photo: Protesters clash with police after taking to the streets in Tehran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, September 21. (AFP)
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Twenty-Seven Die in Militant Attacks on Iran Security Forces, Say Media 

File photo: Protesters clash with police after taking to the streets in Tehran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, September 21. (AFP)
File photo: Protesters clash with police after taking to the streets in Tehran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, September 21. (AFP)

Militants killed at least 11 Iranian security force members and suffered 16 fatalities in attacks on Iran's Revolutionary Guards headquarters in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, state media said on Thursday. 

The overnight clashes between the Jaish al-Adl group and security forces took place in the towns of Chabahar and Rask, state TV said. 

"The terrorists failed to succeed achieving their goal of seizing the Guards headquarters in Chabahar and Rask," deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state TV. 

State TV said 10 other security officers were also injured in the fighting in the impoverished region. 

Jaish al-Adl says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis in Iran. It has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent years on Iranian security forces in Sistan-Baluchestan. 

The area, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has long been the site of frequent clashes between Iranian security forces and militants as well as drug traffickers. 

Iran is a key transit route for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan to the West and elsewhere. 

In December, the militant group attacked a police station in the town of Rask, killing 11 security personnel. 

In January, Iran targeted two bases of the militant group in Pakistan with missiles, prompting a rapid military riposte from Islamabad targeting what it said were separatist militants in Iran. 



Pope Leo XIV Urges Release of Imprisoned Journalists, Affirms Gift of Free Speech and Press

TOPSHOT - Pope Leo XIV (C) gestures during an audience to representatives of the media, at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican, on May 12, 2025. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Pope Leo XIV (C) gestures during an audience to representatives of the media, at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican, on May 12, 2025. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
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Pope Leo XIV Urges Release of Imprisoned Journalists, Affirms Gift of Free Speech and Press

TOPSHOT - Pope Leo XIV (C) gestures during an audience to representatives of the media, at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican, on May 12, 2025. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Pope Leo XIV (C) gestures during an audience to representatives of the media, at Paul-VI hall in The Vatican, on May 12, 2025. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Pope Leo XIV on Monday called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the "precious gift of free speech and the press" in an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists who descended on Rome to cover his election as the first American pontiff.

Leo received a standing ovation as he entered the Vatican auditorium for his first meeting with representatives of the general public.

The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary, elected in a 24-hour conclave last week, called for journalists to use words for peace, to reject war and to give voice to the voiceless.

He expressed solidarity with journalists around the world who have been jailed for trying to seek and report the truth. Drawing applause from the crowd, he asked for their release.

"The church recognizes in these witnesses - I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives - the courage of those who defend dignity, justice and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices," he said.

"The suffering of these imprisoned journalists challenges the conscience of nations and the international community, calling on all of us to safeguard the precious gift of free speech and of the press."

Leo opened the meeting with a few words in English, joking that if the crowd was still awake and applauding at the end, it mattered more than the ovation that greeted him.

Turning to Italian, he thanked the journalists for their work covering the papal transition and urged them to use words of peace.

"Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others," he said. "In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say `no´ to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war."

After his brief speech, in which he reflected on the power of words to do good, he greeted some of the journalists in the front rows and then shook hands with the crowd as he exited the audience hall down the central aisle. He signed a few autographs and posed for a few selfies.

It was in the 2013 audience with journalists who covered the election of history's first Latin American pope that Pope Francis explained his choice of name, after St. Francis of Assisi, and his desire for a "church which is poor and for the poor!"