Iran’s clerical rulers are facing fresh pressure in the country’s southeast, where an opposition coalition has claimed six armed strikes amid an accelerating wave of violence.

The People’s Fighters Front, known as JMM, says it carried out the attacks in Sistan and Baluchistan and neighboring Kerman province. The coalition formed in December 2025, bringing together Baloch nationalist organizations and the militant Sunni group Jaish al-Adl.

The attacks come as a human rights group reports a sharp increase in violent incidents in the region.

According to an October report from the Human Rights Activist News Agency, or HRANA, “The pace of violence accelerated significantly in recent weeks [in the provinces] with 18 incidents recorded in just the final 18 days of the reporting period, surpassing the total for any previous full month.”

For Tehran, the threat extends beyond the individual attacks. Sustained unrest could strain security forces and erode the regime’s grip on the southeast, even if the armed groups lack the strength to seize territory, according to Iran expert Mardo Soghom.

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“The Sunni unrest can stretch the regime’s military and internal security capabilities and have a psychological impact on its forces, in addition to what they experienced during the 40-day operation by the U.S. and Israel. The armed groups would not be able to establish control of the south-east, but they can seriously weaken the regime’s control,” Soghom told Fox News.

Sistan and Baluchistan, the second-largest of Iran’s 31 provinces, has a majority Sunni population in a country dominated by Shiite Islam. Iran’s Sunni minority has endured discrimination for decades.

Whether armed groups in the region are receiving foreign assistance remains unclear.

“Whether these forces are receiving assistance from the Islamic Republic‘s adversaries — being that the Gulf Arab states or even Israel and the U.S. — remains an open question,” Soghom said.

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