Tensions continue in Iran's southeast as more policemen killed

Four Iranian police officers have been killed in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the scene of  recent deadly violence.

"The incident, at a traffic police station on the Iranshahr-Bampour highway, caused the martyrdom of police officers," regional police chief Major Alireza Sayyad told IRNA news agency.

He added that an investigation was underway.

Clashes broke out in Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, sparked by the alleged rape of a local teenage girl by a police chief.

On September 30 in Zahedan, the provincial capital, dozens of protesters and six members of the security forces were killed, according to the authorities.

On October 9, UK-based group Baluch Activists Campaign (BAC) said clashes between protesters and security forces since September 30 in the city of Zahedan had left at least 95 dead.

Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan has long been a flashpoint for clashes with rebels from the Baluchi minority, Sunni Muslim groups and drug smuggling gangs.

Iran has also been rocked by more than seven weeks of nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Masha Amini while in the custody of the Tehran morality police.

READ MORE: Death toll from Iran protests rises: NGO