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Iran Vows To Investigate Saturday's Fatal Bombings

05:59 2005-10-17

Pravda

Iranian officials on Sunday vowed to investigate fatal attacks in southwestern Iran one day earlier,voicing suspicion that Britain was involved in the bloody incident.

"The interior, intelligence, and foreign ministers and the national police chief are scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday to investigate recent bombings in Ahvaz," Alaeddin Borujerdi,chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Majlis (parliament) was quoted by the semi-official Mehr newsagency as saying.

Borujerdi said the committee was concerned about the current insecurity in Ahvaz and determined to investigate the matter,urging the judiciary to "take serious measures against the agents who perpetrated the bombings."

Two bombs exploded consecutively Saturday evening in an IT commercial center in Ahvaz, capital city of the southwestern province of Khuzestan, killing six and wounding more than 50.

The oil-rich province accounts for almost 90 percent of Iran's nearly 132 billion barrels of proven oil reserve and most of the country's 2 million ethnic Arabs live in the province.

Radical conflicts between the government and local people have become a serious concern of the Iranian government, which blames the tension on continuous provocation of some foreign countries.

Earlier in the day, the students' news agency ISNA quoted Borujerdi as saying that there were "concerns over the British agents' involvement in the explosions since there are British troops deployed alongside the border in Iraq.

Borujerdi said Iran had information that British agents played a role in unrest in Khuzestan four months ago, referring to a wave of riots which killed at least 5 in mid-April.

The riots were triggered by a forged letter which was said to be written by former Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi to promotea coercive migration of ethnic Arabs in the province.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said in astate radio program that he believed the explosions were "a continuation of previous explosions that were guided from abroad."

On June 12, four bombs exploded concurrently near public facilities in Ahvaz, killing eight people and injuring scores of others. Iranian intelligence officials pointed to some "foreign agents" behind the explosions.

Pourmohammadi's deputy Mohammad Hossein Musapur told Mehr that security officials in Khuzestan found some clues in Saturday's bombings.

"It was very probable that British agents, who were also involved in the terrorist attacks in Ahvaz in spring, had playedan active role in the recent bombing as well," Musapur said,adding that the explosions might be due to ethnic disputes in Khuzestan.

"Nothing is clear yet," Musapur said.

At a weekly news briefing on Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi declined to comment on such allegations, saying that the Foreign Ministry received no report in this regard.

"We do not speak without documents. Relevant organizations should comment on the issue after studying documents," he said.The charge against Britain came just days after London toned upits accusation that Iran's elite militia had been training personnel and supplying explosive technology to insurgents in southern Iraq who pose a threat to British soldiers there.

Tehran has rejected the British allegation as a lie, saying that no country will benefit from confrontation with Iran, Xinhua reported.