Twick: foxnews.com
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei Puts Military On Full Alert
7.05 a.m. ET (1105 GMT) September 15, 1998
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran ordered its military and top civilian officials on full alert today amid heightened tensions with neighboring Afghanistan, state media reported.
APKhamenei recently warned that Afghanistan's Taliban militia were leading to a regional crisis
The action by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came a day after he warned that the actions of Afghanistan's Taliban militia were leading to a regional crisis and urged Muslim countries to intercede.
Tensions between the two countries have been running high since the fundamentalist Taliban admitted Thursday to killing eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist last month.
Iran has massed tens of thousands of troops on its border with Afghanistan, and there have been widespread calls in the country for a strike on the Taliban, whose forces killed the Iranians after capturing the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Aug. 8.
"All officials and those in charge of affairs of the country, including the armed forces, must be ready for speedy, timely and decisive implementation of whatever decisions the senior political and security authorities deem necessary," Khamenei told the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps today, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
ReutersThe coffin of one of the Iranians killed by Islamic Taliban fighters passes Iranian leaders on its way to the airport
The remains of seven of the nine Iranians killed in Afghanistan arrived Monday in Tehran.
The Taliban, which controls about 90 percent of Afghanistan, is widely believed to be supported by Pakistan. Iran, alleged to be backing the alliance fighting the Taliban, has urged a government be formed of all Afghan factions.
The Taliban has instituted a strict form of Islam in the areas it controls, banning women from jobs, prohibiting girls from attending schools and forcing men to grow beards and pray at mosques.
Looks like they are getting ready to "jump". |
