Five out of 12 members of the Iranian border guards were released following their abduction in October by militants near the Pakistani border, announced the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
"The five ... who were kidnapped in the Mirjaveh border post by the Jaish al-Zolm (Jaish al-Adl) returned home on Wednesday night. They were released after joint efforts made with the Pakistani side," the Guards said in a statement, Tasnim reported.
The fate of the others remains unknown, but an Interior Ministry official told Iran's ILNA news agency that the others will be freed soon.
The Iranian separatist group Jaish al-Adl said last month it had abducted 12 border guards, which included members of the Guards, on the border with Pakistan in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
The area has seen occasional clashes with Baluch separatists and also drug traffickers.
Details were sketchy and Iran has since twice revised the number of the abducted border force, including some from the vaunted Revolutionary Guard.
Pakistan has promised to help free the Iranian guards.
Jaish al-Adl kidnapped five Iranian border guards in 2014, releasing four of them two months later after mediation by local Sunni clerics.
Iran had threatened to hit militant bases in Pakistan unless Islamabad took action to secure its border area, which Tehran says has become a safe haven for anti-Iran groups to operate.
