By Xinhua,
Tehran : In an armed confrontation in Iranian southern province of Kerman, nine drug traffickers were killed by Iranian soldiers, Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.
The report, which quoted a military news release in Kerman, said in the confrontation, the soldiers succeeded in blowing up a land cruiser which was carrying the nine traffickers, some gallons of gasoline and weapons.
The report said the soldiers got the information in an intelligence operation earlier that a group of the armed bandits would pass through a desert area in Kerman province.
Iran’s security forces often clash with drugs-smuggling armed groups in Kerman and its neighboring Sistan-Baluchestan province, which have been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings in the past years.
Iranian authorities blamed a Sunni group called Jundallah for the accidents and repeatedly accused the United States and Britain of supporting the armed bandits and trying to make convulsions in the country’s bordering areas.