The blast went off as the mosque's cleric was delivering a weekly speech denouncing the Bahai faith and Wahabiism an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia, according to local news reports. Such speeches are not unusual in Iranian mosques.
An explosion in a mosque killed 15 people near Iran's volatile border with Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday and a local official said it was a terrorist attack.
The blast went off in Zahedan, the capital of a lawless province that frequently witnesses clashes between police and gangs involved in drug smuggling. It has also seen attacks by an Islamic militant group called Jundallah, which claims to be fighting for rights of Sunni Muslims in mainly Shiite Iran but is suspected of al-Qaida links.
Alaeddin Mazari, a local journalist in Zahedan, told The Associated Press that the explosion occurred in the second biggest Shiite Muslim mosque in the city, some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor of Sistan-Baluchistan province where Zahedan is the capital, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency the explosion happened at 7:45 p.m. (16:15 GMT) and said a terrorist was involved, but didn't provide further details. He told state television that he detained some suspects who planned additional attacks ahead of the June 12 presidential election.
The state news agency said 80 people were injured in the explosion and no group had taken responsibility. It quoted an unnamed official as saying part of the mosque was destroyed and rescue teams were transferring the bodies of the dead and injured.
I was leaning towards work accident 'til I read this:
The blast went off as the mosque's cleric was delivering a weekly speech denouncing the Bahai faith and Wahabiism an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia, according to local news reports. Such speeches are not unusual in Iranian mosques.
Continued on Page 47
#3
Asia Times reports that Al Qaeda has recently forged an alliance with an Iranian Baluchi organization. Al Qaeda wants this organization (Jundullah or "Army of God") to attack Shia targets in Iranian Baluchistan in return for Al Qaeda funding and support.
More details at the link.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/28/2009 17:33 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yesterday, while reading the death toll from bombings in Pakistan, it occurred to me that the biggest enemy of Islam is Islam - at least as far as piles of dead Muslims are concerned.
Iran has arrested more than 100 "Satan-worshippers" in a raid on a concert in the southern city of Shiraz where people were drinking alcohol and "sucking blood," a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"One hundred and four members of a Satan-worshipping group were arrested at a party and immoral concert in Shiraz (on Sunday)," local Revolutionary Guards chief Abbas Hamidi was quoted as saying by Jam-e Jam newspaper. "The session was held in a garden outside Shiraz and the Satanist ceremony was broadcast live to the world via the Internet," he said, adding the arrest was made by members of the Islamist Basij militia linked to the Guards. "These people drank alcohol, hurt themselves and sucked blood," Hamidi said. "They even bow to Satan in some ceremonies."
They put it on the internet? Perhaps not the best idea in a totalitarian country.
Iranian authorities sometimes link hard rock and heavy metal music and their icons with devil worship.
There are those who think the same over here.
Alcohol is banned in the Islamic republic.
There are those who think the same about that over here, too.
Jam-e Jam carried pictures of drum sets and amplifiers seized in the raid and a group of young men photographed after the arrest sitting on the floor of an official-looking building with their backs to the camera. It said some of the detainees sported tattoos and body art resembling the wings of birds and car emblems.
Hamidi said Basij intelligence forces operating under the Revolutionary Guards had put "foreign-linked groups and their venues" under surveillance for a year before making Sunday's arrests.
I'll bet some of the surveillers were seduced to the dark side during that time.
Over the past two years Iranian police and security officials have warned against the emergence of "Satanist" cults accused of corrupting the young, amid a tough nationwide crackdown on "unIslamic" attire and behavior. In September 2008, a senior police chief said members of the so-called cults would wear "broken-cross and skeleton necklaces and rings, drink alcohol and dance in their ceremonies."
OMG!!!!! They were dancing!?!?!?! Why didn't anyone invite me?
"They believe they should defy religions, especially Islam, do as they want and drag the world into anarchy," deputy police chief Hossein Zolfaghari said.
A little anarchy would prob'ly be healthier than the current situation in Iran.
In 2007 police arrested 230 people in a raid on an illegal indie rock concert in a garden near Tehran and several reports branded the party-goers as Satan-worshippers.
Continued on Page 47
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Israel is becoming increasingly anxious about the fate of UNIFIL if Hizbullah increases its power in upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon.
Wasn't it after the Polish contingent took charge of UNIFIL that it became effective, or am I misremembering?
Defense officials have also expressed concern with American plans to supply advanced military platforms to the Lebanese armed forces.
The Lebanese people will head to polls on June 7 amid predictions that Hizbullah will bolster its position in parliament and form the next coalition.
Israel is concerned that if Hizbullah wins the elections, some European members of UNIFIL will consider downsizing their participation in the force or completely withdrawing their personnel. Poland has already decided to withdraw its forces and transfer them to Afghanistan.
The concern also stems from the scheduled resignation of UNIFIL Command Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano, of Italy, and the handover of command of the 12,000-man force to the Spanish military, defense officials said. "We are hoping to receive assurances that European countries will remain committed to UNIFIL even in the event of a Hizbullah victory in the elections," a senior defense official familiar with the issue said.
On Tuesday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that while Hizbullah was amassing unprecedented amounts of weaponry, UNIFIL's presence in southern Lebanon was "making the task more difficult."
Then shouldn't we want UNIFIL to evaporate?
Senior defense officials said they were concerned with the supply of American arms platforms to Lebanon and warned that if Hizbullah formed the next government, the weapons would fall into the guerrilla group's hands.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr was quoted as saying last week that the US has promised to supply dozens of fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and unmanned aerial vehicles following the elections and regardless of its results.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned this week that if Hizbullah gained considerably in the elections Israel would not feel the restraints it did in 2006 about attacking Lebanese infrastructure. "Today Hizbullah controls a third of the Lebanese government," Barak said. "If in the upcoming elections Hizbullah will gain more power in the government, that will open it up more than in the past to the IDF's force, and will give us a freedom of action that we did not have completely in July 2006."
During the early days of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, there was a debate inside the government about the degree to which the IDF should hit essential infrastructure in Lebanon, with much of the world urging Israeli restraint so as not to weaken the position of pro-Western Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
"The UN investigation will apparently find Hizbullah responsible for the killing of [former Lebanese prime minister Rafik] Hariri," Barak said, adding that this is a further indictment against Hizbullah for trying to undermine the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the region.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As Israel remains adamant on blemishing the prospects of Iran-US dialogue and coaxing the White House into a war, Israel's military Chief of Staff says the regime is ready to use all options against Iran.
And this Iranian press service clearly is not at all pleased about that.
Israel, the possessor of the sole nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, has long strived to portray Iran as a regime hell-bent on starting a nuclear war through the pursuit of its nuclear program.
Possibly because the Iranian regime is indeed so bent.
The UN nuclear watchdog says Iran has not opted against international law while conducting the program, which Iran says has civilian purposes.
"It is my job as army chief to prepare all the options, and that is what we're doing," Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel's military Chief of Staff, said.
His remarks come as Iran and the US, which have not had diplomatic ties for nearly three decades, are moving to consider a possible rapprochement. Such reconciliation, however, has rubbed Tel Aviv the wrong way.
Israel, which claims to see Iran as an "existential threat", considers possible friendly ties between Tehran and Washington a major blow to its interests. "The dialogue between the US and Iran is unlikely to succeed, but this is the preferred course for us too," said Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi. "Iran continues with its plans. The existence of nuclear weapons in Iran's hands could destabilize the entire Middle East."
The Israeli general added that the army would take "every possible measure" when it has to deal with Iran.
The remarks come amid doubts raised by Western experts that the Israeli Air Force does not possess the necessary power to bomb the Iranian program out of existence. In return, Israeli defense experts claim that a nuclear strike might get the job done. According to a report by the Sunday Times, Israeli air force squadrons have trained to blow up Iranian nuclear facilities using low-yield nuclear "bunker-busters."
Even I know that the bunker busters are conventional, not nuclear. Although perhaps that's just the American model. It could be that Israel developed such nuclear weapons without remembering to inform me.
Ashkenazi's warning against Iran came as the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicizes that lifting Iran's alleged "nuclear threat" is his government's mission.
In an address to the right-wing Likud party, Netanyahu said if Israel does not remove the Iranian threat, no one will. Citing Iran as a danger he said, "My job is first and foremost to ensure the future of the state of Israel ... the leadership's job is to eliminate the danger. Who will eliminate it? It is us or no one."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[11145 views]
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#2
I still think the best tack for the Israelis is a plausible deniability radiation attack in Iran. People in a city near a major nuclear site start dropping dead from radiation poisoning, suffering severe skin burns, that sort of thing. Useless for the Iranian government to deny it is them.
A few thousand lives could save hundreds of thousands of lives. The purpose is to teach the Iranian people that what they want will not give them their desires, but it will destroy them.
#3
Obama's America already said to the Israelis we do not care about your lives. So the only entity to protect them is the Israeli Government.
And the time to act is NOW!
Posted by: Ana ||
05/28/2009 10:21 Comments ||
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#4
Obama's America already said to the Israelis we do not care about your lives
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."*
-- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
* Offer may be subject to conditions, exclusions, and disclaimers and in no way, represents the current views of the Democratic Party. Not valid outside the continental United States.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Principlist candidate Mohsen Rezaei says Iran needs a "fundamental revision" in its political agenda, considering the recent changes in the West's approach.
"European countries and the US have backtracked on some of their policies," said Rezaei on Wednesday. "Iran should take that into serious consideration and make the necessary changes in its approach."
Rezaei, who headed Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps for sixteen years, explained that the Ahmadinejad government's "obstinacy" and "steadfastness" resulted in Iran's access to nuclear technology but also brought upon us crippling sanctions and a political deadlock.
He said the government could have pursued the technology within its peaceful framework through dialogue with European countries aimed at lifting the sanctions.
The Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council went on to lay out plans to enter into bona fide negotiations with the West to end the economic sanctions against Iran over its low-level nuclear activities.
Iran's June 12 presidential election is the tenth since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the last prime minister of Iran (1981-989), and Mehdi Karroubi, two-time parliament (Majlis) speaker (1989-1992 and 2000-2004) are vying for the presidential palace.
Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also signed up to seek another four-year term.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As criticism continues to mount on the government, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns that his election rivals are "crossing the line into insolence".
With only weeks left to the June 12 polls, President Ahmadinejad said that his election rivals have resorted to lies, insults and exaggerations in their presidential campaigns to smear his image ahead of the elections. "The baseless claims that some of the candidates make against the government are an insult to the people's intelligence," said Ahmadinejad.
He warned that he is running out of patience and is considering to take necessary action against their accusations. "If the insults to the nation continue, the government will reconsider its approach," he said.
President Ahmadinejad came under harsh criticism after a National Audit Office report, issued in February, revealed that more than one billion dollar of surplus oil revenues in the 2006-2007 budget had not been returned to the treasury.
His main rivals include Iran's last prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei, and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
You are all curs! All of you!
I am the greatest! (nutjob)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Iran Press TV Latest] As criticism continues to mount on the government, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns that his election rivals are "crossing the line into insolence". 
