Iran arrests four Jundallah militants planning attacks

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) — Iranian security officials have arrested four members of the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), better known as Jundallah, the the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday.

A local police said the suspects were planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balouchestan Province on the International Qods Day, which is commemorated on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan to express solidarity with Palestine. The four suspects were arrested in two separate incidents.

Colonel Masoud Heidari, the chief of the security police in Sistan-Balouchestan Province, said security forces first arrested three members of the group on August 21 when they were heading to Kerman Province while carrying explosives, weapons, and ammunition. On August 25, police arrested another member of the group and seized six pistols, some TNT, and other explosive materials.

Jundallah militants are accused of carrying out numerous bombings and other forms of attacks in Iran. In December 2010, Iran executed eleven people accused of belonging to the PRMI.

In May 2009, Jundallah attacked the crowded Shiite Amir al-Mo’menin mosque in Zahedan, destroying the mosque and killing and wounding numerous worshipers. An October 2009 bomb attack which killed more than 40 people was reportedly the deadliest terrorist attack in Iran since the 1980s.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the designation of Jundallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in November 2010. The State Department said that the group uses a variety of terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings, ambushes, kidnappings and targeted assassinations.

Iran accuses the United States of providing money to Jundallah in order for the group to carry out attacks in the country. This claim is based on alleged confessions from former Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi made before he was executed in 2010.

Saturday, August 27th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19726/iran-arrests-four-jundallah-militants-planning-attacks/.