Unknown gunmen launch attack on Iranian court; kill 6, wound 20

Dubai: Unknown attackers launched a gun and grenade attack on a court building in southeast Iran Saturday, killing six people, including a child and wounding 20, state TV reported.

The report said security forces killed three of the gunmen in the armed clash in the country's restive southern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. It did not identify any of the victims, the Associated Press reported.

State TV said the attack happened in the province's capital city of Zahedan. Police and security forces immediately took control of the site, 1,130 kilometres or 700 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran.

A report by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to security forces, blamed the attack on the militant group Jaish al-Adl, which wants independence for Iran's eastern Sistan and Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan provinces.

The province, bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces.

In October, an attack on an Iranian police convoy in the province killed at least 10 officers.

Sistan and Baluchistan province is one of the least developed parts of Iran. Relations between the predominantly Sunni Muslim residents of the region and Iran's Shiite theocracy have long been strained.

Meanwhile, a report earlier this week suggested that Iran has restored several of its air defence systems that were damaged during last month’s conflict with Israel.

According to a report by Iran’s Defah Press news agency, the announcement was made by Mahmoud Mousavi, the deputy for operations in Iran’s regular army.

“Some of our air defences were damaged, this is not something we can hide, but our colleagues have used domestic resources and replaced them with pre-arranged systems that were stored in suitable locations in order to keep the airspace secure,” Mousavi said.