A Colonel of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has been assassinated after his car was attacked by a group of assailants in southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.

The IRGC Ground Force’s Quds Base said in a statement on Wednesday that Colonel Hossein-Ali Javdanfar, a serviceman at IRGC’s Salman unit in the province, was killed in a targeted shooting attack on the road linking Khash city to the provincial capital city of Zahedan.

The statement described Javdanfar as an IRGC advisor, who had traveled to Saravan County on a mission to oversee cultural activities and projects there.

Efforts are underway to identify the attackers, it noted.

This came on the same day that the IRGC Ground Force managed to fight off a team of militants affiliated with the Pakistan-based so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group in the same Iranian province.

According to a statement released by the IRGC Ground Force’s Quds Base, IRGC servicemen, having fully detected the fully-armed terrorists and been informed of their plans for terrorist activities, clashed with them in Kastag village of Rask County.

The statement added that a terrorist was killed in the operation, while the rest fled the area into southwestern Pakistan. An amount of ammunition, weapons and explosives was also recovered from the militants.

Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan, has witnessed several terror attacks targeting both civilians and security forces over the past years.

Iran’s security forces have invariably protected the border areas and managed to repel almost all terrorist attacks by foreign-backed anti-revolution elements across the country.

Back on December 15 last year, the Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for a vicious terrorist assault on Rask County's police headquarters.
Alireza Marhamati, deputy provincial governor in security and political affairs, said at the time that 11 police forces, including officers and conscripts, were killed in the attack.