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To: LTK007 who wrote (462)	2/14/2007 3:24:27 PM
From: LTK007	Respond to of 694

11 dead in bomb attack on elite Iran force Stuart Williams AFP February 14, 2007 <<Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said last week that Tehran had identified 100 spies working for the United States and Israel in the border regions. >> metimes.com TEHRAN (1425 GMT) -- Eleven members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were killed Wednesday when a car bomb ripped through a bus carrying them to a base in a sensitive southeastern border province, official media reported. The bus was taking them from their housing compound in the city of Zahedan to a military base just after daybreak when gunfire forced it to stop in front of the booby-trapped car, which then exploded. A strike of such size, on an elite force in broad daylight and in an open street, is unprecedented in Iran. According to unconfirmed Web site reports, the attack was claimed by a shadowy Sunni militant group, Jundallah, which has been blamed for a string of armed incidents in volatile Sistan-Baluchestan province. Footage broadcast on Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television showed the bus, a twisted frame of wreckage, and a large crowd gathered at the scene. "In the bombing this morning in Zahedan, 11 people were martyred in a thoughtless action," said local Guards commander Mohammad Javad Ethna Ashari, blaming bandits and outlawed groups opposed to the Islamic republic. All the dead were from the Guards, Iran's elite ideological army, official media said. Ethna Ashari said that 31 people were wounded. IRNA's correspondent in Zahedan quoted witnesses as saying that militants placed a booby-trapped car in the path of a bus carrying Guards ground forces and detonated the explosives when the bus drew near. The witnesses said that, among the militants, motorcyclists shot at the bus to force it to stop. The bomb inside the car, a standard Iranian Peykan model, was apparently detonated by remote control, they added. IRNA reported that two militants carrying grenades and camcorders had been apprehended by the public and arrested while three others were detained later. City governor Hassan Ali Nouri told IRNA that the main "agent" behind the bombing had been killed by security forces, without giving details. Zahedan, a dusty and tense border city, is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province that borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been the center of low-level unrest over the past months. It has a substantial Baluch community, a minority Sunni Muslim group. Earlier this year, four members of the Iranian security forces were killed in the city when armed men opened fire on their vehicle. In December, a car bomb exploded in Zahedan, killing one person. Last March, Afghan bandits shot dead 22 people traveling between Zahedan and the neighboring border city of Zabol. Hossein Ali Shahriari, who represents Zahedan in parliament, criticized the police and military for failing to take appropriate security measures, the ISNA agency reported. "Why does our diplomatic apparatus not seriously confront the Pakistani government for harboring bandits and regime's enemies? Why do security, military, and police officials not take more serious action?" he asked. The upsurge in unrest in Sistan-Baluchestan also comes after violence in Iran's oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, which has a minority Arab population. Bomb attacks in October 2005 killed six people in the provincial capital of Ahvaz and wounded nearly 100. Another double bombing in January 2006 killed eight and wounded 46. An unverifiable Web site message attributed to Jundallah claimed the Zahedan bombing in revenge for the recent executions of those found guilty of the Ahvaz attacks. Iran Wednesday hanged three more people in Ahvaz who had been convicted of carrying out the deadly bombings in 2006, the Fars news agency reported. Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the sensitive border areas. Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said last week that Tehran had identified 100 spies working for the United States and Israel in the border regions. Such accusations come amid rising tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program, which the United States alleges is cover for a weapons drive. Iran insists that its nuclear drive is purely aimed at generating energy.