Iran: Britain denies role in guards attack

Britain’s foreign minister has categorically denied Britain had anything to do with the suicide attack on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards yesterday.

America and Pakistan have also denied accusations they helped the Sunni rebel Jundollah movement carry out the bombing, which killed two of the Guard’s senior commanders and 40 others.

Several senior Iranian figures have said the Iranian security services had proof of foreign involvement, with President Ahmadinejad accusing Pakistan, but today he called instead on Islamabad for closer co-operation in dealing with terrorism, which he called their “common enemy”.

The Jundoullah group is based in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan on the Afghan frontier and it has been mounting increasingly spectacular attacks against the regime in Tehran for a number of years.

Iran says group members are given safe haven in Pakistan and it is sending a delegation to demand the extradition of its leader, Abdolmalek Righi.

Iran executed 13 group members in July.

29 dead in suicide attack on Revolutionary Guards commanders

euronews-A suicide bomber has killed 29 people, including six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders in Iran.

State television says a Sunni rebel group has admitted carrying out the attack which left another 28 people wounded.

Analysts say a rebel group known as Jundollah, which has links to the Taliban in neighbouring Pakistan, is the likely suspect.

The attack took place at the gates of a conference hall in the city of Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

A suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body during a gathering of tribal leaders according to the Iranian television reports.

The Revolutionary Guard is a branch of Iran’s military founded after the Iranian revolution. It is thought to number as many as 120,000 with its own small naval and air arms.

Two high-ranking commanders among the dead were the deputy head of the Guards’ ground forces and the regional commander of the Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Violence continues in Pakistan, with a wave of attacks on police buildings across the country

euronews channel-In Lahore, in the east, gunmen targetted at least three police centres.

Four attackers opened fire on a Federal Investigation Agency regional headquarters.

Several people were reported killed, among them two of the perpetrators.

Other gunmen hit a police academy on the outskirts of the city.

There are unconfirmed reports hostages were taken in that attack.

Elsewhere in the town of Kohat in the north-west, at least eight people were killed, after a suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station compound.

Civilians, including school children, are reportedly among the dead.

In recent weeks more than 100 people have been killed in suicide attacks, mostly claimed by the Taliban.

Scores die in Afghan tanker blasts

Scores of people have been killed in Afghanistan  after a NATO air strike targetted two hijacked fuel tankers. The vehicles had been taken by the Taliban but it is unclear how many insurgents and how many civilians died when the trucks exploded.¨

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned any civilian loss of life saying it was unacceptable. NATO has dispatched a senior team to talk to witnesses to find out what happened.

The NATO attack was about 7 kilometres south west of Kunduz city in the far north of Afghanistan
in the early hours local time. Earlier the fuel trucks had been reported hijacked and two of the drivers beheaded by the Taliban. While under Taliban control one tanker had become stuck in a river bed and according to some reports the Taliban were giving some of the fuel away to local families.
Anyone immediately near the tankers was burned beyond recognition by the explosions.

Dozens dead as NATO hits Afghan fuel trucks

Up to 90 people are feared dead and many others badly injured, after a NATO airstrike on two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

NATO forces confirmed they carried out the air strike, saying their targets were insurgents. But reports speak of a large number of civilian casualties. Villagers in northern Kunduz province were apparently trying to collect fuel when NATO blew up the tankers.

Civilian casualties during Western military operations in Afghanistan are hugely sensitive and a major source of tension with the government there.