The report said the Revolutionary Guards clashed with drug traffickers Thursday in a mountainous area near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan and killed four of them.

A Sunni Muslim militant group called Jundallah, or God's Brigade, has been active in the area and was blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops. In February, Iran hanged a member of the group who was convicted of a bombing that killed 11 guardsmen in Zahedan, the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Iran is ruled by a Shiite theocracy and a majority of its population is Shiite. But minority Sunnis live in the lawless southeast a key crossing point for narcotics from Afghanistan and police where drug gangs often clash.