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Agents free diplomat kidnapped in Pakistan
Iran said Tuesday its intelligence agents mounted a "complicated" cross-border mission and freed a diplomat kidnapped in 2008 in northwestern Pakistan.

Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said Iran had asked Pakistan to free Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, but after it failed to do the job, Tehran stepped in.

However a senior Pakistani security official said Pakistani intelligence did help in the rescue. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Another Pakistani official, Governor of North West Frontier Province Owais Ahmed Ghani, said Afghan officials helped recover Attarzadeh.

Iran is mostly Shiite and is regularly denounced by the fiercely Sunni al-Qaida and Taliban operating along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Hardline Sunnis consider Shiites to be heretics and often call for attacks against them.
Posted by: tipper 2010-03-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=293718