Iran forces kill or wound 48 rebels in two months: report

Published: October 14, 2008

Iranian soldiers participate in military manoeuvres at Sistan-Baluchestan province near the Pakistani border in August. Iranian troops have killed or wounded 48 rebels in the restive southeast of the country during operations over the past two months, the official news agency IRNA has reported. (AFP Str)

TEHRAN (AFP) Iranian troops have killed or wounded 48 rebels in the restive southeast of the country during operations over the past two months, the official news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday.

"In a clash in the past 24 hours, 10 leading members of a terrorist group were killed or wounded," Brigadier General Bahram Norouzi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was quoted as saying.

The corps commander at a base in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan said another 38 rebels had been killed or wounded over the past two months and that a large amount of weapons and ammunition was seized.

Norouzi said the 10 rebels killed or injured in the most recent fighting were members of a group behind the kidnapping of 16 Iranian border policemen in June, including its leader.

The Sunni rebel group Jundullah (Soldiers of God) seized the policemen on June 12 and claimed to have killed several of them.

Jundullah has been blamed for a string of attacks and kidnappings in Sistan-Baluchestan, home to a large ethnic Baluch community who, unlike most Iranians, are Sunnis.

The province is on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan and is a major drug trafficking route.

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