The Iranian Regime Gets A Taste Of Its Own Medicine

Suicide bomb kills elite troops in Iran
By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: October 18 2009 15:38 Last updated: October 19 2009 06:59
Six senior commanders in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and 36 others were killed by a suicide bomber on Sunday in the most serious attack against the Islamic regime in more than 20 years.
Nourali Shoushtari, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces, was among those killed in an attack that highlights the pressures facing the regime at a critical time in its nuclear negotiations with the west.
The attack in the restive province of Sistan-Baluchestan will raise speculation that Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities are seeking to exploit the political unrest stemming from June’s disputed presidential election.
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the hardline president whose re-election prompted mass opposition protests, accused unspecified foreigners of complicity. “The criminals will soon get the response for their anti-human crimes,” he said, according to the official news agency.
In Washington, a spokesman for the State Department condemned the “act of terrorism” and rejected Iranian accusations of US involvement as “completely false”.
Iran’s state television reported only sketchy details of the incident in the south-eastern province that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. It said Jundallah, a Pakistan-based radical Sunni group that seeks independence for Iran’s ethnic Baluchis, had claimed responsibility for the explosion. The broadcaster also blamed Britain’s “overt and hidden hand in terrorist attack against Iran”.
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Mr Ahmadi-Nejad said Iran had received information that “some security agents” in Pakistan were co-operating with elements behind Sunday’s attack, according to the Fars News Agency. He called on Pakistan not to waste time contacting Iran before apprehending the perpetrators.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry reportedly denied Mr Ahmadinejad’s suggestion. ”Pakistan is not involved in terrorist activities ... we are striving to eradicate this menace,” Abdul Basit, the Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Daily Times newspaper on Sunday.
There were contradictory reports on the whereabouts of the attack. According to some domestic news agencies, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his waist blew himself up in a hall in the border town of Pishin where the guards’ commanders and local tribal leaders were due to meet for a conference on the unity of Shias and members of the Sunni minority. Other reports said the military commanders were killed on their way to the conference.
State media on Monday said 42 people were killed. But domestic news websites speculated that as many as 60 people had been killed, including 20 senior guards’ commanders.
Jundallah, which Iran alleges is supported by US and British intelligence services, has carried out a series of attacks on government officials and military personnel. However, Sunday’s attack was far more ambitious than previous assaults, and the seniority of the victims makes it a major embarrassment for Iran’s security apparatus.
The commander of Sistan-Baluchestan’s guards Rajabali Mohammad-Zadeh was among those killed. Iran’s elite force took over the security in Sistan-Baluchestan province a few years ago to establish calm in Iran’s most troubled region. It is not only home to dissident ethnic and religious minorities but also the main transit route of drugs trafficking.
The attack came a day before Iran was due to meet western officials for the latest round of talks over its disputed nuclear programme.
Iran has a variety of ethnic groups, with Persians constituting half the 70m-strong population and the rest comprised of Azeris, Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis.
Tabnak, a conservative website, said the killing was the deadliest attack on senior commanders since the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. “This shows that security calculations in restive areas ... are disrupted,” it wrote.
Iran’s eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan stretch over 1,400km while their porous nature allow separatist Baluchis and groups linked to al-Qaeda to cross easily. An increase in the activity of al-Qaeda activities in Pakistan has also made Iran more vulnerable to terrorist attacks by radical Sunnis who consider Shia-dominated Iran a sworn enemy.
Iran last month blamed groups with links to al-Qaeda for attempts on the lives of two judges and two clerics in the northwestern province of Kurdistan. Senior diplomats in Tehran also suspect that Sunni dissident groups have expanded their activities to Kurdistan helping separatists against the Islamic regime.