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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (166306)	7/16/2005 10:30:06 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

Iran discloses arrests, deportations of Al Qaida suspects Nazila Fathi, New York Times July 17, 2005 TEHRAN, IRAN -- Iran said on Saturday that it had arrested 200 people and deported another 800, all of whom it said were part of a terrorist cell. Information Minister Ali Younessi said the arrests were made last week after the ministry started a "fifth wave" of a crackdown against operatives linked to Al-Qaida, the IRNA news agency reported. It was the largest roundup of terrorism suspects announced by the Iranian authorities. Iran rarely discloses information about arrests of Al-Qaida suspects, and Younessi's public comments were unusually detailed. Still, much remained unknown, including the location to which the suspects were deported. Younessi said Al-Qaida had organized and formed different groups in eastern Iran to carry out terrorist attacks in larger cities, including Tehran, the capital. Iranian "theology students and Sunni leaders" were singled out in the roundup, Younessi added. Iran's population is mostly Shiite. Although Iran cited security reasons in not identifying those it has arrested, Younessi gave the name of a ringleader he said was still at large. The man, Abdul Malek, was linked to a group of fighters close to Osama bin Laden who collaborated with drug traffickers, Younessi said. Malek "lives in Baluchistan in Pakistan but sometiems enters eastern Iran illegally. "The group intended to sabotage and carry out terrorist attacks in Iranian cities, especially in Tehran," the IRNA news agency quoted Younessi as saying. Younessi said the first wave of the crackdown began when large numbers of Afghan refugees flooded toward Iran's borders after the fall of the Taliban government in November 2001. "We were determined to expel all these people back then under any conditions. This stage was very important and was considered a direct confrontation with Al-Qaida," he said. He also referred to earlier operations aimed at the militant group Ansar al-Islam and at what he described as drug traffickers.