Iran arrests bomb suspects, police say U.S. link

Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:18 PM ET (The red highlights are mine)

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has arrested some 65 men suspected of being behind a deadly bombing that killed members of the elite Revolutionary Guards in a south-eastern border province, the student news agency ISNA said on Friday. It quoted the local police chief as saying the suspects had clear links to U.S. and British intelligence services. (what an idiot. I suppose al Qaeda, Taleban, USA, and English are all in cohorts against Iran all the same time and helping each other) The claim comes at a time when the United States has accused Iranian groups of involvement in the war in Iraq. A booby-trapped car blew up a bus owned by the Guards on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people in the city of Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan-Baluchestan province which has been the centre of low-level unrest over the past months. The attack was claimed by a shadowy Sunni militant group, JONDOLAH (God's soldiers), which Iran has said was linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Tehran has blamed JONDOLAH for past killings in the area bordering Pakistan. Iran has accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the sensitive border areas to destabilise the country. "Our investigations clearly shows their connection to American and British intelligence organisations and also to groups opposed to the Islamic republic," Ghafari said. (in that case he has to arrest %80 of Iranians.) Iranian officials said on Wednesday that five of those behind the bombing, including the key suspect, were arrested by security forces. Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed official on Friday as saying those behind the bombing had received training from the United States to create ethnic divisions in Iran. "I joined Jundallah three months ago ... and entered Iran from a neighbouring country to carry out terrorist acts. I received training in Pakistan," IRNA quoted the key suspect Nasrallah Shamsi Zehi as saying. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency also quoted an unnamed official as saying that "explosives used by the terrorists in Zahedan were American made". ( I suppose Hezbollah or hamas had learnt it from the US and then thought these poor bustards). The upsurge in unrest in Sistan-Baluchestan also follows violence in Iran's oil-rich south-western province of Khuzestan, which has a minority Arab population. Bombs killed six people in the provincial capital of Ahvaz and wounded nearly 100 in October 2005. Another double bombing in January 2006 killed eight and wounded 46.