Iranian media: Gunmen kill Sunni cleric in southern town
Jul 5, 2018
Iran's official IRNA news agency: Gunmen shoot and kill Sunni cleric in a town in the country's south
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's official IRNA news agency says that gunmen have shot to death a Sunni cleric in a town in southern Iran.
The report says cleric Abdolshakour Kord was killed on Thursday outside of a mosque in the Baluchi town of Khash. The town is about 1,650 kilometers, or about 1,000 miles, southeast of the capital, Tehran, near the border with Pakistan.
IRNA says the cleric was active in both religious and academic fields and that the case is under investigation.
The region where the killing happened has been the scene of occasional clashes between Baluch militants and Iranian government forces. It is also a major route of drug smuggling by armed bandits.
The predominantly Shiite Iran, with a population of about 80 million, has a Sunni minority of several million.
