Three Iranian security force members killed in clashes with gunmen

Three members of Iran's security forces were killed in clashes with gunmen on Saturday, state media reported, in a region plagued by violence involving armed groups including drug traffickers and separatists.

State television initially said four gunmen were also killed during the operation against "terrorists" in Iran's southeast.

But Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, later updated the toll to five gunmen dead, in a statement carried by state TV.

State television, which did not specify if the gunmen were affiliated with any organisation, said they were planning a "terrorist operation" in the city of Saravan, which lies more than 1,300 kilometres from the capital Tehran.

Iranian forces also seized "weapons, ammunition and explosives", the statement added.

The operation took place in Sistan-Baluchistan province, one of Iran's poorest regions that borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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Security forces regularly clash with armed groups in the area.

On Tuesday, a commander in Iran's Basij paramilitary force, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in an attack in Sistan-Baluchistan.

The region is home to a large Baloch ethnic minority, who practise Sunni Islam in Shia-majority Iran.