Iran hanged two people today convicted of smuggling drugs in a southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, official media reported.
The two were put to death in Zahedan prison in the volatile border province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which is notorious for clashes between security forces and drug traffickers, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"These two people were convicted of buying, delivering and keeping 59 kg of drugs .... and the sentence was carried out this morning," IRNA said.
Iran's border regions are a major smuggling route for drugs and other contraband. More than 3,300 Iranian security personnel have died in the region fighting drug traffickers since Iran's 1979 revolution.
Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, practised since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
The number of executions in Iran, many in public, has increased since July, when police started a crackdown on "immoral behaviour".