TEHRAN: Three Iranian police have been killed this week, Tasnim news agency said Saturday, bringing to six the number of officers to have lost their lives in reported violence over the same period.

On Friday, a captain was killed in the southwestern province of Khuzestan during a raid on a “base of armed robbers”, Tasnim reported.

A day earlier, another policeman died of wounds sustained during clashes with “armed thugs” in the central province of Isfahan, the news agency said.

Another policeman was run over Wednesday by a vehicle transporting smuggled fuel in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, according to Tasnim.

The province lies on the border with Pakistan and is a flashpoint of clashes between security forces and armed groups.

The clashes often involve smuggling gangs as well as separatists from the Baluchi minority or extremist militant groups.

On Wednesday, state news agency IRNA said three policemen, including a colonel, had been killed and six others wounded in clashes with an armed group, also in Sistan-Baluchistan.

At least two members of the armed group were killed in the violence, which lasted almost 24 hours, it said.