DUBAI (Reuters) - A Revolutionary Guards general, who headed a military base in a sensitive security area in northeastern Iran, died on Sunday after he accidentally shot himself in the head while cleaning his gun, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The report identified the commander as General Qodratollah Mansouri, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Eastern Iran, which borders Afghanistan -- the world’s top opium producer -- and Pakistan, has long been plagued by clashes with drug smuggling gangs. Southeastern Iran is also the scene of unrest by separatists and Sunni militant groups.