Iran-Afghan Line Is Site of Fighting
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TEHRAN — Iranian police killed at least 29 drug traffickers and arrested nearly 500 people in heavy fighting near the Afghan border, state television reported Monday.
The clashes Sunday left 87 armed traffickers dead or wounded, a senior police official told state television, adding that about 2.5 tons of heroin and opium were seized.
“So far, 29 bodies have been sent for fingerprinting and identification,” he said, without giving the total number of deaths.
The official said 482 people, including traffickers and their contacts, had been arrested.
Most of the clashes took place at night in the mountainous terrain of eastern Khorasan province overlooking the border, he said.
Traffickers use Iran as a transit route to smuggle narcotics from Afghanistan to Europe and the Middle East.
The number of casualties was the highest reported from such clashes this year.
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