From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Iran FM accuses ‘foreign-backed terrorists’ of Chabahar attack
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused “foreign-backed terrorists” of attacks Thursday in the port city of Chabahar that killed two people and wounded around 40 others.
“Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we’ve made it clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished,” Zarif tweets.
Chabahar lies in Sistan-Baluchistan province which has long been a flashpoint, with Pakistan-based Baluchi separatists and Sunni Muslim extremists carrying out cross-border attacks targeting the Shiite authorities.
“In 2010, our security services intercepted & captured extremists en route from UAE. Mark my words: Iran WILL bring terrorists & their masters to justice,” Zarif adds in the tweet.
He is referring to the capture, trial, and subsequent execution in June 2010 of Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Sunni militant group Jundallah who had waged a deadly insurgency in Sistan-Baluchistan.
He was captured while on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgystan after Iranian fighter jets intercepted the airliner and forced it to land in Iran and removed Rigi and a number of his companions.
— AFP
The Times of Israel Community.