Insurgents shoot cleric in Iran’s south-east province

Iran Focus Tehran, Iran, Apr. 09 – A senior Iranian cleric was shot and “seriously wounded” and two army officers were killed by gunmen in the restive province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, south-east Iran, a semi-official daily reported on Sunday.

Hojjatoleslam Youssif Mohammadi-Soleimani, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Centre for Higher Education in Iranshahr, was gunned down Friday evening by an individual on a motorbike, the hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami wrote.

Mohammadi-Soleimani was shot five times, the report said, adding that he was seriously wounded.

On Saturday, six armed individuals kidnapped a local oil official, identified as Eshaq Nezamdoust, outside his home.

The report added that in two separate incidents, two army officers identified as Mostafa Ahmadi and Behzad Gholi-Pour were killed by insurgents.

“Considering the fact that Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province has land and sea borders stretching thousands of kilometres with Pakistan and Afghanistan where American and British military forces are based, in order to create lasting security and relieve the people here of fear, officials must act quickly to reduce damages as a result of insecurity”, the daily added.