A suicide car bombing occurred on 6 December 2018 near a police station in
Chabahar
Chābahār ( fa, چابهار, bal, چھبار, čahbàr; ; formerly ''Bandar Beheshtī'') is the capital city of Chabahar County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. It is a free port (free-trade zone) situated on the coast of the Gulf of ...
city,
Sistan and Baluchestan Province.
The attack left at least two policemen killed and 48 others injured,
among them women and children.
Iranian media has accused the
Ansar Al-Furqan
Ansar Al-Furqan ( ar, انصار الفرقان, Partisans of the Criterion) is a Sunni Baloch militant organization active in Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency and a designated terrorist organization by Iran. The group was established in Decemb ...
group
a Sunni jihadi group, of being behind the incident. Ansar Al-Furqan took responsibility for the attack.
Suicide bombings are rare in Iran.
Bombing
A suicide bomber drove a
pickup truck
A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...
loaded with explosives towards a Law Enforcement Police's station in Chabahar city. Police officers blocked the vehicle and started shooting at the driver, who then blew the car up near the station.
According to France 24, as soon as the car bomb was detonated, gunmen tried assaulting the Police Headquarters, but they were killed by Iranian security forces.
At least two policemen killed and 48 others injured as a result of the bombing.
The injured people, among them women and children,
consisted of 10 military personnel and 32
civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
, 28 of whom were immediately discharged from the hospital after outpatient treatment and 8 others underwent
surgery
Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...
.
Aftermath
According to the police chief
Hossein Ashtari
Hossein Ashtari ( fa, حسین اشتری) is an Iranian military officer who currently serves as Iran's Chief of police, the chief commander of General Command of the Law Enforcement of Islamic Republic of Iran, since 2015.
Prior to the appointm ...
, 10 people, suspected of having links to the bombing incident are detained and more cases are identified and being prosecuted.
Javad Zarif
Mohammad Javad Zarif Khansari ( fa, محمدجواد ظریف خوانساری, Mohammad-Javād Zarīf Khānsāri ; ; born 8 January 1960) is an Iranian career diplomat and academic. He was the foreign minister of Iran from 2013 until 2021 in th ...
, Iran's Foreign Minister, accused a foreign power of involvement and did not name a specific country. "''Foreign-backed terrorists kill and wound innocents in Chabahar. As we've made clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished''," Zarif said on Twitter.
Indian Foreign Minister described the attack as "despicable terrorist attack" and asked for bringing the perpetrators to the justice.
Pakistani Foreign Office Spokesman
Mohammad Faisal condemned the attack in a Twitter message.
Analysis
According to the Tasnim News Agency, the aim of the attack was to destabilize the area prior to the meeting of the committee pursuing the
Chabahar Agreement.
See also
*
2010 Chabahar suicide bombing
References
{{coord missing, Iran
Explosions in 2018
Terrorist incidents in Iran
Terrorist incidents in Iran in 2018
Suicide car and truck bombings in Asia
Attacks in Asia in 2018
History of Sistan and Baluchestan Province
Suicide bombings in Iran
Explosions in Iran
2018 murders in Iran