According to government's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), in the early hours of May 15 (local time), two policemen in the southwestern city of Ahvaz were killed by unidentified assailants.

Colonel Ali Ghasem-Pour of the local police force told IRNA that in an armed attack by unknown people on police personnel in Ahvaz, two policemen were killed.

Without providing further details, he added that immediately after the attack police took up measures to identify and arrest the perpetrators.

Later, ISNA also reported that the prosecutor of Ahvaz, Abbas Hosseini-Pouya, has confirmed that two policemen were killed and one injured. The assailants attacked police precinct 22.

Fars news agency identified the police officers as Ali Bakhsh-Hassanvand and Azizollah Bahmani. Their funeral will be held on May 16.

In 2015, three policemen were killed in Hamidiyeh township, 25 kilometers west of Ahvaz, in an attack on a police station. IRNA says that the assailants, whom it calls "terrorists", were identified and arrested in 72 hours after the incident and were tried and convicted.

There have been a number of armed attacks and bomb explosions in Iran's oil producing Khuzestan province. In the past, the authorities have accused "foreign governments" of being behind such incidents.

Khuzestan is economically and strategically a very important region of the country, which has an ethnically mixed population, with local Arabs, and other Iranian ethnic groups.