June 13, 2005

Iraqi Terror Group, U.S., Blamed for Iranian Bombings (UPDATED)

Four bombs killed at least eight people in Iran over the weekend. The bombs went off in a predominately Arab community targetting buildings associated with the Persian dominated government. Here is the kicker: Iran is blaming a terrorist organization in Iraq that was initially supported by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party during the long years of conflict between the two nations. However, the fall of the Hussein regime means those funds dried up.

So now that Iran is busying itself supporting the insurgency in Iraq, at least some of that money is being used for acts of terrorism against the Iranian government. Ironical.

As Ward Churchill would say: "It's just the hens coming home to roost."

UPDATE: I've found a few more articles in which the Iranians blame the US for being linked to the terror attack. After reading that I'm much more inclined to believe that elements within the Iranian government itself is to blame for the bombings in an effort to garner public support for a more hardline candidate than Hashemi Rafsanjani who leads in the polls. Yes, it's a conspiracy theory, but such conspiracies are much more likely to exist in closed societies with formal media controls such as in Iran.

Here is the article from Townhall:

Iran's fundamentalist government has blamed U.S.-sheltered terrorists for a series of bomb blasts on Sunday that killed at least nine people, less than a week before voters choose a new president...

But a spokesman for Iran's Security Council accused groups linked to the ousted Baathist regime in Iraq.

A senior national security official was quoted as blaming Arab separatists whom he said were being trained under the protection of U.S. forces in neighboring Iraq.

The official, Ali Agha Mohammadi, said British forces based in southern Iraq may also be linked to the attackers.

"We call on the Americans and the British to condemn these attacks and hand over the terrorists in Iraq. Sadly, they have so far not said anything," he said.

On April 22, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 203 lead article explored Khuzestan Arab Spring offensive and its Kurdish Iraqi backing. On May 6, DNW 204 revealed Khuzestan Front’s No. 2 leader Said Taher Naama paid secret visit to White House April 23

Bombs killed eight people and wounded 75 in Iran on Sunday in a rare string of attacks five days before a presidential election.

Security is tight in the Islamic republic, where bombings have been almost unheard of in the past decade.

Four bombs in Ahvaz, capital of the partly Arabic-speaking province of Khuzestan, where most of Iran's oil reserves lie, targeted government buildings, killing seven people, provincial officials said.

Hours later, a bomb in the capital Tehran killed one person.

In the Ahvaz blasts, two of the dead were women, and 70 people were wounded, the officials said. Ethnic unrest claimed five lives in Khuzestan in April.

The Popular Democratic Front of Ahvaz, which is campaigning for an independent Khuzestan, denied it was behind the attacks, but it said another Arab group calling itself the Ahvazi Revolutionary Martyrs' Brigades had claimed responsibility....

About 150 demonstrators protested outside the governor's office in the evening, waving Iranian flags and chanting "Death to the hypocrites" -- a term used for the exiled opposition People's Mujahideen Organization.

"Based on intelligence we received, a network was trying to create problems before the election," Aghamohammadi said.

He blamed unidentified opposition groups who had called for a boycott of the elections and suggested infiltrators had come from parts of neighboring Iraq under U.S.-British control.

Aghamohammadi said it appeared that some of the infiltrators belonged to the People's Mujahideen. U.S. forces took control of the group's bases in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.