OMEN
05-01-2006, 09:06 PM
Tehran - Iranian security forces have arrested 25 people suspected of involvement in a double bomb attack in January in the southwestern oil capital of Ahvaz, the ISNA news agency reported on Monday.
"The main agents in the latest Ahvaz bombings have all been arrested and their cases are being dealt with," the city's prosecutor, Iraj Amirkhani, was quoted as saying.
On January 24, eight people were killed and 46 wounded in a double bomb attack in Ahvaz. A visit to the city by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that day had been cancelled at the last minute.
The first bomb in the city - dominated by ethnic minority Arabs and capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province - was in front of a private bank and busy commercial area. The second targeted a government building.Close to the border with British-controlled southern Iraq, Ahvaz has been hit by a wave of unrest over the past year.
There were ethnic riots in April and a string of car bombings in the run-up to the June presidential election in which Ahmadinejad scored a shock victory.
Last October another double bombing in Ahvaz killed six people and wounded more than 100. Two ethnic Arab separatists, Ali Affrawi and Mehdi Navasseri, were hanged in Ahvaz in early March for carrying out those attacks.
Arabs are said to represent three percent of Iran's population of 69 million, who are mainly Farsi speaking, but they are believed to make up close to 50 percent of oil-rich Khuzestan province's population.
- Sapa-AFP
"The main agents in the latest Ahvaz bombings have all been arrested and their cases are being dealt with," the city's prosecutor, Iraj Amirkhani, was quoted as saying.
On January 24, eight people were killed and 46 wounded in a double bomb attack in Ahvaz. A visit to the city by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that day had been cancelled at the last minute.
The first bomb in the city - dominated by ethnic minority Arabs and capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province - was in front of a private bank and busy commercial area. The second targeted a government building.Close to the border with British-controlled southern Iraq, Ahvaz has been hit by a wave of unrest over the past year.
There were ethnic riots in April and a string of car bombings in the run-up to the June presidential election in which Ahmadinejad scored a shock victory.
Last October another double bombing in Ahvaz killed six people and wounded more than 100. Two ethnic Arab separatists, Ali Affrawi and Mehdi Navasseri, were hanged in Ahvaz in early March for carrying out those attacks.
Arabs are said to represent three percent of Iran's population of 69 million, who are mainly Farsi speaking, but they are believed to make up close to 50 percent of oil-rich Khuzestan province's population.
- Sapa-AFP