IRGC commander says those behind Rask attack will pay dearly for it

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami says the country will respond decisively to a terrorist attack on a southeastern police station earlier this week that left 11 guards killed and 6 others injured.

Salami said in a message to Iran’s police chief on Sunday that those behind the December 15 terrorist attack in Rask, including the foreign actors who ordered it, will pay dearly for it.

“The grudge-bearing enemies of the security of Iran and the Iranians must know that the security guardians and defenders of discipline and peace in the Islamic country will soon… make the perpetrators and orchestrators of this crime taste the bitter revenge for it,” he said in the message.

Iranian authorities say foreign states had ordered the attack by the Jaish al-Adl terrorist group in Rask, a small city in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said during a funeral held on Saturday in the provincial capital of Zahedan for the police officers killed in attack that the Israeli regime supports terrorist groups operating in Iran.

Following the attack, officials asked the neighboring Pakistan to do more to crack down on elements that normally cross the borders and carry out terrorist attacks in Iran.

In his Saturday message, Salami offered condolences to the families of the officers killed in the attack in Rask and said that the incident would backfire on those seeking to sow discord in Sistan and Baluchestan where a majority of the population is from Iran’s minority Sunni Muslim community.