Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

Iran says rebel group killed 16 abducted policemen
04 Dec 2008 18:11:07 GMT
 Source: Reuters
TEHRAN, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday a Sunni rebel group had killed all of the 16 police officers it abducted in a town in the southeast of the country in June, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which Shi'ite-dominated Iran says has links with al Qaeda, took the 16 police hostage from a checkpoint in the town of Saravan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, demanding the release of 200 of its jailed members.

The group, which reportedly had transferred the hostages to Pakistan, said last month it had killed four of the hostages.

Iran's deputy police chief Ahmadreza Radan said all of the abducted policemen had been killed by the rebel group.

"Investigations made by Iranian government and ... police showed all of our loved ones have been martyred by Jundollah terrorists," IRNA reported. "We are investigating how to retrieve their bodies (from Pakistan)."

The rebels operate mostly in Sistan-Baluchestan, a volatile region near the border with Pakistan, home to Iran's mostly Sunni ethnic Baluchis and notorious for clashes between security forces and drug smugglers.

In August 2007, Iran accused Jundollah of kidnapping 30 people in the province. The hostages, who were taken to Pakistan, were freed later by Pakistani forces.

The group claimed earlier in 2007 responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying Iranian Revolutionary Guards that killed 11 people.

Iran says the group's head Abdolmalek Rigi is a leader of the al Qaeda network in Iran. In an interview in August, Rigi told Al Arabiya television that he was thinking of expanding its operations to defend the rights of Sunni Muslims in the Islamic state. Iran denies Western allegation that it discriminates against religious and other minorities.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi)


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Latest news

•  Iran says rebel group killed 16 abducted policemen

•  EU court annuls EU's new Iran terror list move

•  EU court annuls EU's new Iran terror list move

•  US must halt spread of nuclear, bio weapons - Biden

•  Brent crude oil to avg $55.60/barrel in 2009-IIF

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Background information

Facts & figures
Iran

Related articles

Breaking stories
 Iran says rebel group killed 16 abducted policemen (1 minute ago)

EU court annuls EU's new Iran terror list move (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 MEDIAWATCH: Food summit thwarts hope (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Yes, people over 50 have sex too (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Global Incidence of H5N1 Virus (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-11-16T084604Z_01_BAG302_RTRIDSP_2_IRAQ-MINES_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/BAG302.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-23T114950Z_01_MXR05_RTRIDSP_2_EU-TERRORISM-IRAN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MXR05.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-10-23T114459Z_01_MXR04_RTRIDSP_2_EU-TERRORISM-IRAN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MXR04.htm

Deminers arrive to clear a mine field in Halabja in northern Iraq November 9, 2008. Iraq is littered with an estimated 25 million landmines, the Environment Ministry says. Many lie in ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Thu Dec 4 18:12:44 2008