The policemen were killed in Iran's restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan. (Credit: AFP)
Gunmen ambushed and killed two Iranian policemen while on patrol in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, state media reported Saturday.
The officers had been "on a mission to provide security" during Friday prayers in the town of Golshan when they came under attack, said the official news agency IRNA.
The ensuing exchange of gunfire led to the "martyrdom" of Lieutenant-Colonel Mohsen Pudinehi and Lieutenant Ehsan Shahraki at the hands of "criminals," the agency said, without elaborating.
Situated on Iran's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sistan-Baluchistan province has been the scene of weekly protests that flared up in September over a police officer's alleged rape of a teenage girl.
The protests began two weeks after nationwide demonstrations erupted over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's dress code for women.
The region is one of Iran's poorest and is home to the Baluchi minority, who adhere to Sunni Islam rather than the Shiism predominant in Iran.
The area has previously seen clashes with drug-smuggling gangs as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority as well as Sunni Muslim extremist groups.
The officers had been "on a mission to provide security" during Friday prayers in the town of Golshan when they came under attack, said the official news agency IRNA.
The...