Two Iranian civilians were killed in a cross-border attack by Pakistani insurgents, the Revolutionary Guards said.

 

"On Saturday evening, a terrorist team... fired (ammunition) from within Pakistani territory toward the Iranian border region of Saravan" in Sistan-Baluchistan province, the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website.

 

"Two local workers in the region were martyred in this terrorist attack," it added.

 

Forces from the Quds force -- the Guards' foreign operations wing -- killed one of the attackers and wounded two, while others fled back into Pakistani territory, the statement said.

 

The insurgent group was not identified, but for years the region has been the site of frequent attacks by the Jaish al-Adl jihadist group, which Tehran says has links to al-Qaida and is based in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan.

 

Jaish al-Adl was blamed for an attack in April that killed 10 Iranian border guards in the nearby Mirjaveh region.

 

President Hassan Rouhani wrote to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calling for greater efforts to prevent insurgent attacks along the border.

 

The Guards also said on June 19 that they had killed the leader and four members of another jihadist group called Ansar al-Furqan in the Iranian port city of Chabahar in Sistan-Baluchistan province.