| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran security forces kill five militants |
| 2006-05-25 |
| TEHERAN - Iranian security forces have killed five suspected hardline Sunni militants believed to have been involved in roadside murders in the restive southeast of the country, police said on Thursday. Quoted by state television, the police information centre said the five were killed in a district of Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province. An Iranian guard was killed and another injured during the operation. On May 13, a group of 12 travellers were killed on a main road between the cities of Bam and Kerman. Police said a shadowy group called Jundallah (Army of God) claimed responsibility for the execution-style murders. Jundallah, headed by a figure called Abdolmalek Rigi, has claimed responsibility or been blamed for a string of armed incidents in IranÂ’s Sistan-Baluschestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sunnis form the majority in IranÂ’s Sistan-Baluchestan, although Shiite Islam is IranÂ’s official religion. Southeastern Iran is also a major thoroughfare for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe and the Middle East. Iranian officials have also accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating within the Islamic republicÂ’s sensitive border areas, amid a worsening stand-off over IranÂ’s nuclear ambitions. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 |
| Posted by: doc 2006-05-25 11:14 |
| #2 Why does that not suprise me. This whole sectarian conflict thingy seems alien to me. Like Baptists and Lutherans killing each other for being Baptists and Lutherans. |
| Posted by: Gloque Spoluth3045 2006-05-25 09:37 |
| #1 "...Sunnis form the majority in IranÂ’s Sistan-Baluchestan, although Shiite Islam is IranÂ’s official religion." a little known factoid about Iran is that no Sunni mosques are allowed in Tehran (only Shia mosques are allowed). |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-05-25 09:12 |