Iran hangs 16 suspected rebels after deaths of 17 border guards ..

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Iran has reportedly hanged 16 rebels in response to a deadly attack that killed at least 14 of its border guards near Pakistan.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that rebels attacked a border post on Friday, in a mountainous region outside Saravan, a border town in the province of Sistan Baluchistan.

The attorney general of the province told the press that the executed rebels were linked to groups hostile to the government but were not directly accused of carrying out the border killings.

The region has experienced repeated deadly clashes over previous years. The Sunni militant group Jundallah has been waging attacks on civilians and officials in southeastern Iran for almost a decade.

More than 4,000 police officers and soldiers have been killed in the past three decades fighting traffickers along the Iran-Pakistan border.