Iran prosecutor killed in attack

Tehran (AFP) — A public prosecutor in Iran's restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan was killed Wednesday in a "terrorist attack," the head of the provincial judiciary said.

"Around 7:30 a.m (0400 GMT), Mousa Nouri, the prosecutor of the city of Zabol, came under attack by unknown people,? the Fars news agency quoted Ebrahim Hamidi as saying.

He said gunmen stopped the prosecutor's car in front of a hospital before opening fire on it.

"Unfortunately in this terrorist attack, the prosecutor and his private driver were martyred," said Hamidi.

Zabol is close to the border with Afghanistan.

Sistan-Baluchestan is home to a large community of minority Sunni Muslims, unlike the rest of Shiite-dominated Iran, and the province has long played host to drug traffickers and Sunni militants.

The Sunni Jaish-ul Adl rebel group claimed responsibility for an ambush last month that left 14 border guards dead near the Pakistani border.

Iran in retaliation said it had executed 16 "rebels" -- eight Sunni insurgents and eight drug traffickers -- all of whom had been on death row, according to Iranian media.

Last week another four members of Jaish-ul Adl were killed in clashes with Iranian security forces.

Another Sunni militant group, Jundallah, has launched deadly attacks on civilians and officials in the southeast for almost a decade.

Iran captured and hanged its leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, in June 2010.