Iran/Terrorism: Blasts kill at least 27 outside mosque in Zahedan

Media reported that at least 27 people, including elite Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, were killed and more than 270 others wounded in twin suicide bombings at a mosque in Zahedan in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan on Thursday.

Reportedly, the first bomb was detonated at the entrance to the mosque by a suicide bomber disguised in women’s Islamic clothing, killing the military personnel providing security. A second blast was triggered by a bomber as people gathered at the scene.

The terrorist group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the bombings on its website, saying it had carried them out in retaliation for the execution of the group's leader, Abdolmalek Rigi in June. The attack was allegedly directed against a gathering of the elite Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, known also as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG).

 Iran/Security: Tehran puts 10 terrorists on trial

Iranian Police Officials reported that ten suspects accused of belonging to Jundallah terrorist group went on trial in Tehran on Tuesday. The suspected terrorists are facing trial for plotting attacks in retaliation for the arrest of their leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who was executed two days ago for involvement in attacks on the predominantly Shi'ite Islamic state.

Iranian ISNA News Agency reported that 10 associates of Abdolmalek Rigi have been accused of Moharebeh (waging war against God) by supporting and becoming members of the Jundallah group.

Iran executed Rigi, the leader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group on Sunday, three months after his arrest by Iranian Security Forces on February 23.

According to Judiciary Official, Rigi was charged with 79 counts of armed robbery, bombing operations, and armed attacks on civilians.

Reportedly, Jundallah has links to Al-Qaeda and support from Pakistan, Britain and the United States. However, all three countries denied backing it.

Iran/Terrorism: Jundallah terrorist leader hanged

Iran's official IRNA News Agency reported that the leader of the Iranian Jundallah terrorist group, Abdulmalik Rigi has been hanged on Sunday in Evin prison of Tehran after months of interrogation and trial.

Rigi was convicted on 79 counts including armed attacks, bombings, assassination attempts and other crimes.

He was captured in February as he was flying over the Persian Gulf en route from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.

Jundallah, a group centred in Balochistan province of Pakistan, had launched several deadly attacks in 2009, including a May attack on a Shi’ite mosque in Zahedan and an October attack which killed several top commanders in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Iran/Security: Security forces arrested members of terrorist group

Iranian intelligence ministry announced on Wednesday that its forces managed to arrest members of two groups of Mujahideen Khalq Organisation (MKO) which planned bomb attacks in some Tehran's squares.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi stated that the terrorist teams aimed to plant bombs in a number of squares in Tehran. According to him, the security forces arrested them in a surprise operation before any the terrorists could make a move.

The Intelligence Minister also said the arrested agents in Iran have been in touch with MKO elements in Britain, France and Sweden via phone and e-mail. Mosleh however, did not say how many people were arrested and did not precise the day of arrest.

Earlier on Sunday, security forces arrested 13 terrorists in different provinces of Qazvin, Hamedan, Kurdistan and Mazandaran. 10 bombs, 500 kg of explosives and a large amount of weapons have been seized during the arrests.

Iran/Terrorism: Security forces arrest 13 terrorist group members

Iran's state television reported on Sunday that security forces arrested 13 terrorists with 10 bombs, 500 kg of explosives and a large amount of weapons in different provinces of Qazvin, Hamedan, Kurdistan and Mazandaran.

Among other attacks, the terrorists were involved in the assassination of provisional Friday prayers leader of the western city of Sanandaj Mamousta Borhan and Sanandaj's legislator at the Assembly of Experts Mamousta Mohammad Sheikholeslam.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry did not identify the group nor it specified whether those arrested were Sunni rebels in southern Iran or Kurdish separatists based in mountainous areas close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey.

Iran/Terrorism: Three Iranian policemen killed in roadside bombing

Media reported on Thursday that a roadside bomb detonated by suspected Kurdish rebels of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) left three policemen killed near the town of Piranshahr, in west of Tehran.

According to the Iran daily General Faramarz Hosseinzadeh, the Local Chief of Border Police, and two other policemen were killed during the incident.

In May, five Kurdish activists were hanged in Iran on charges of involvement bombings and linkages to terrorist groups.

PEJAK is Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and is frequently engaged in armed clashes with Iranian Security Forces along the country's western borders with Iraq.

Iraq/Iran/Turkey/Security: Iran troops reportedly attacked PJAK on Iraqi territory

Officials in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region stated on Tuesday that dozens of families had been displaced in days of shelling by Iranian forces pursuing rebels from Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) in the border region.

However, on the other hand, Kurdish officials denied reports that Iranian troops had entered Iraqi territory in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. According to the officials, more than 100 families had fled shelling over the past week along the northern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran.

Major General Jabbar Yawar, a spokesman for the Kurdish security forces, said Iranian troops did not enter into the Kurdistan region, meanwhile he confirmed that the villages near the border have faced artillery shelling for the past week.

Turkish military sources reported that four PKK guerrillas were killed Turkish military aircraft bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on May 20.

Israel/Italy/Iran/Security: Israeli authorities hold 480 activists, expelling 48

On Monday, Israeli commandos stormed an aid flotilla in international waters of the Mediterranean headed to Gaza that left at least nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.

Media reported on Tuesday that Israel has detained 480 pro-Palestinian activists captured in its deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and will expel 48 others.

Reportedly, those detained were being held at the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while the other 48 were being taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be sent back to their home countries.

According to sources, Israeli officials would question the detainees before deciding whether to free them or prosecute them. Another 45 activists, most of them Turkish, were being treated in various hospitals.

Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stated that six Italians on the aid flotilla destined for the Gaza Strip are being held in Israel. In a interview on television news programme Frattini said he hoped the group would be released soon.

Separately, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday that Iran has precise information that Israel plans to launch a “massive attack” on Gaza in the wake of its deadly raid on an aid flotilla.

Pakistani ambassador attacked in Teheran

The Iranian Foreign Ministry reported on Tuesday that Pakistan’s ambassador was the victim of an attack in Iran's capital.
The semi-official Fars news agency disclosed that the attacker was arrested, without indicating whether the ambassador suffered injuries.

Iran/Security: Five PJAK terrorists were hanged in Tegran

Iranian new agencies reported that five members of Kurdish rebel group, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) were hanged in Iran on Saturday, on charges of involvement in bomb attacks and links to terrorist groups.

According to IRNA news agency, the five, including the woman Shirin Alamhouli, were executed in Tehran's Evin prison. Reportedly, the five were convicted of being "moharebs" or "enemies of God" -- a crime punishable by death under Iran's sharia-based Islamic law. They were also convicted of carrying out terrorist acts, including bombings of government centres and public properties in several Iranian cities.

Iran/Security: Five Kurdish rebels killed in Kermanshah province

Fars news agency reported that five Kurdish rebels belonging to the banned Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) have been killed by revolutionary guards in Iran's Kermanshah province on Wednesday.

Ali Akbar Nouri, a commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, confirmed that the five, including two women, were members of PJAK. According to Nouri, two other members of the group were injured during the clashes but managed to escape.

PJAK, an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is frequently engaged in armed clashes with Iranian security forces along the country's western borders with Iraq. Recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey, Iran, Iraq, the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations, the PKK is responsible for many deadly operations in northern Iraq and southern Turkey.

Somalia/Yemen/Iran/Piracy: Somali pirates hijacked Yemeni cargo ship

Yemen's Defence Ministry announced on Tuesday that Somali pirates have hijacked a cargo vessel off the coast of Yemen and are believed to be holding the crew of nine Yemeni sailors.

Interior Ministry stated the ship was seized by the Somali pirates after setting sail from the Yemeni port of Mukalla on its way to the port of Aden. However, the ministry did not specify what the ship was carrying or when it was hijacked.

According to Yemen's coast guard, the vessel was being held at a northern Somali port. The coast guard was now making efforts to get the ship released.

Separately, the Iranian Navy has foiled an attempt by Somali pirates to hijack a foreign cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday. Reportedly, several Iranian naval vessels intercepted 22 Somali pirate boats that had surrounded and attacked a cargo ship, The Atlantic, which was heading from Singapore to the Suez Canal.

Iran/Somalis/Piracy: Iranian navy foiled pirate attack

Iran's anti-piracy naval force have thwarted Somali pirates who tried to seize an Iranian supertanker, carrying a oil worth $150 million, said the official IRNA news agency on Thursday. "Fifteen boats took part in the attempted piracy but they were forced to flee the scene. The pirates suffered heavy casualties," it said.  Reportedly, the attack occurred in the past few days in the Gulf of Aden when the vessel was en route from Iran to Egypt, but the source provided no further details over the incident.

Earlier this month, the Iran's naval force foiled a similar attack on another Iranian tanker on its way to Turkey. Official record accounts for many millions that the pirates have received as ransom from hijacking. Earlier on Wednesday, pirates demanded $20 million as ransom for a hijacked oil supertanker and threatened to blow up unless the money has been paid.

Iran/Terrorism: Tehran thwart terror-attack plan; terrorists arrested

Tehran on Tuesday thwarted a series of possible terror attacks by arresting members of Wahabi and Salafi linked terrorist groups in the city of Sanandaj in the western Kurdistan province. Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar declared that the police also recovered a great amount of arms, ammunition and documents which prove the groups' association with some extremist religious groups.

The official IRNA news agency also quoted a statement by Najjar that said the groups had been armed and trained by American forces, furthermore giving credit to its intelligence officials. “Today, Ministry of intelligence’s forces managed to arrest members of a terror group seeking vandalism in the city,” Najjar said. Over last 7 months, Tehran has already arrested a total of 30 terrorists belonging to the Salafi, Wahabi, and Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) groups.

Iran/United States/Security: Tehran will strike American troops in the region if attacked

Iran's chief of armed forces Staff General Hassan Firouzabadi warned on Thursday that his country would hit US forces stationed in the Middle East if it was attacked by the United States, the Fars news agency reported.

Firouzabadi said that if Washington presents Iran with a serious threat and undertakes any measure against Iran, none of the American soldiers who are currently in the region will return home alive. "If the US takes action against Iran, then the threats against it will become a thousand times more, its economic problems will increase and it will lose more markets," Fars quoted Firouzabadi as saying.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi already warned Israel it would face immediate retaliation, if it dares to launch an attack on Iran. Vahidi furthermore said Tel Aviv was too weak to launch a war against Iran, adding that Teheran’s reaction may be so that there would “remain nothing of the regime”.

Iraq/Terrorism: explosions hit Baghdad apartments, 11 dead

At least 11 people were killed and over 72 wounded on Tuesday when a series of explosions rocked residential buildings across Baghdad, officials said.

Reportedly, the explosions occurred in Baghdad’s north-western Shula and Chukook districts, the south-western al-Shurta al-Rabaa area and the Alawi district in the centre of the city. The blasts took place near the public works ministry, a restaurant and near the former British embassy, damaging apartment buildings. According to officials the death toll was expected to rise as a lot of people were still trapped under the rubble.

As the targeted areas were said to be strongholds of the Mehdi Army, the armed militia connected to the Sadrist Movement led by Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, it is very likely the attacks are politically motivated.

The attacks come just two days after three suicide bombers in a coordinated attack detonated car bombs in quick succession of each near foreign embassies in central Baghdad. 41 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.

According to security officials, the blasts near the Iranian, Egyptian and German embassies followed mortar attacks on the Iraqi capital's Green Zone. One bomb went off in front of the main gate of the Iranian embassy, just outside the Green Zone, destroying about 30 cars, while another suicide bomber crashed his car into the concrete blast wall protecting the Egyptian embassy. Germany's Foreign Ministry stated that an Iraqi security guard working for the German embassy was among the dead.

Iran/Pakistan/Security: kidnapped Iranian diplomat freed

Iran's consul general in the Pakistani city of Peshawar announced on Tuesday that Heshmatollah Attarzadeh Niyaki, an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in 2008 in north-western Pakistan has been freed.

On 13 of November 2008 a group of unknown gunmen ambushed Niyaki in his car as he was on his way to the consulate from his home. The attackers fled with the diplomat after killing his Pakistani bodyguard.

Iran's state television said the diplomat was rescued after a successful operation carried out by Iranian intelligence agents. The state media did not give details of Attarzadeh's release or if there were any casualties during the mission. However, it indicated that it could have been a cross-border operation.

No group has claimed responicbility for the kidnapping. Meanwhile, authorities pointed figure at Taleban and affiliated Sunni Muslim terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda behind the kidnapping of the Iranian diplomat.

Iran/Security: grandson of fromer Iranian President Rafsanjani held in Tehran

(Mohammad Kheirkhah/UPI/Gamma/Photo News)

Fars news agency and an opposition website reported on Monday that Iranian authorities have arrested Hassan Lahouti, a grandson of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on his  arrival in Iran from London.

"Hassan Lahouti, who left Iran 10 days after the presidential election for London where he resides, was arrested last night on arrival in Tehran by agents carrying judicial orders and taken to prison", Fars said, quoting an anonymous source close to Rafsanjani's family. According to opposition website Rahesabz.net, the 23-year-old Lahouti was arrested at the airport and taken to Tehran's Evin prison.

Rafsanjani, who currently heads two powerful institutions in the Islamic republic, has himself already been arrested twice between 1989 and 1997. Recently he has been criticised by pro-government hardliners for his support of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

The Iranian government in early February ordered wide-scale arrests, curtailed communications and organized a massive show of force by security forces in order to prevent planned protests by the opposition. Since then, antigovernment demonstrators have decreased enormously.

Italy/Iran/Security: Italian police arrested seven people over arms trade

Italian police have arrested seven people for allegedly selling arms and ammunitions to Iran, authorities said Wednesday. Reportedly, among the arrested persons – five are Italian and two Iranian.

According to police the two Iranians and are believed to be Iranian secret service agents. Police officials said the arrests were carried out in several Italian cities on Tuesday.

Armando Spataro, Italy's anti-terrorism chief, stated that the police operation was largely based on wiretapped conversations and intercepted email messages. He said the arms were being sent through third countries to try to avoid the scrutiny of the arms embargo against Iran.

Police seized significant number of  arms including gun scopes and tracer bullets and explosive materials. Reportedly, the materials for explosives were purchased in Germany and could be used to produce the firebombs.

asie centrale : la TROÏKA russo-irano-chinoise 

Par le lieutenant-colonel (e.r) Renaud FRANCOIS, Chercheur associé à l’ESISC  

(Zuma Press/Photo News)

L’inauguration relativement discrète, le 6 janvier dernier, du gazoduc turkméno-iranien Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran, constitue avec l’inauguration, fortement médiatisée, trois semaines auparavant, le 14 décembre 2009, du gazoduc turkméno-chinois Saman Depe- Alashankou et avec la reprise, le 9 janvier, des exportations en direction de la Russie, le point de départ d’un nouvel et important épisode dans la géopolitique du gaz en Asie centrale. Depuis début janvier 2010, la quasi-totalité des exportations annuelles de gaz du Turkménistan - une cinquantaine de milliards de m³ - se fait maintenant en direction d’une « troïka » composée de la Russie, de la Chine et de l’Iran. Avec pour corollaire la relégation au second plan des projets de gazoducs américano-européens et une profonde modification du paysage gazier centrasiatique… Lire la suite