TEHRAN -- The Intelligence Ministry announced on Sunday that a terrorist team affiliated to the outlawed group of Jeish al Adl (the Army of Justice) came under attack as soon as they crossed Pakistan's border into the southeastern province of Sistan-Balouchestan, resulting in the killing of the team's leader.

"Following a series of complicated and vast intelligence operations in the other side of the borders (in Pakistan), a terrorist team which was affiliated to the terrorist group of Jeish al-Adl was detected by the intelligence forces of Sistan-Balouchestan province as soon as they crossed the border and entered the country," the ministry stated.

It added, "The forces ambushed the team and killed Elyas Narouei, nicknamed Zobeir, the team's head at the scene."

"Two fire guns, a batch of ammunition and equipment for building bombs were seized in the operation," the ministry said.

Narouei had staged a number of terrorist attacks in the province, including commanding attack on the IRGC base in Nikshahr, exploding the Khash-Zahedan bus in a suicide, and planting a bomb in front of police center in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Balouchestan province.

In the attack on the Khash-Zahedan bus in February 2019, a suicide bomber killed at least 27 members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. Jeish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion was so powerful that the bus was turned into a twisted pile of metal.

Last month, the commander of the IRGC Ground Force said Saudi Arabia had provided a Pakistan-based terrorist group conducting acts of terror against the Islamic Republic with at least three planeloads of weapons and equipment.

Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said members of the so-called Jeish al-Adl operating on southeastern borders of Iran are well-armed.

This shows that the terrorists enjoy the “all-out backing of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and their regional allies,” Pakpour said.

The general added that the IRGC Ground Force had dealt a “heavy blow” to the terrorists despite the Saudi support.

The Jeish al-Adl group, based in Pakistan, has been behind several bomb attacks and kidnappings in the southeast of Iran.

On October 15, 2018, the group infiltrated Iran from the Pakistani side of the border and took hostage 14 border guards, local Basij forces, and IRGC members.

Jeish al-Adl was founded after its parent group, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jundullah, was dissolved following the capture of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010.

MJ/PA