Gunmen shot dead a public prosecutor and his driver in south-eastern Iran on Wednesday, Iranian media said, less than two weeks after militants killed 14 Iranian border guards nearby and Tehran retaliated by hanging 16 prisoners. The killings, in the city of Zabol, near to where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, come at a time of heightened tension in the region. Heavily armed drug smugglers are also active in the region.
The gunmen shot dead Zabol public prosecutor Musa Nouri and his driver as he was on his way to work, Iranian news agencies said. The pair were "martyred in a hail of bullets from Kalashnikov rifles", Fars news agency quoted the province's chief justice Ibrahim Hamidi as saying.
"The assassination is likely the result of enforcing justice in the province," another Fars news report quoted Rajabali Sheikhzadeh, deputy governor of Sistan and Balochistan province, as saying.
The killing of a public prosecutor so soon after the reprisal executions appears to mark a further escalation of the violence. However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's attack.
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