Following last Friday’s revelation that 14 border guards — including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — were killed by the Sunni insurgent group Jaish ul-Adl in southeastern Iran, concern in Iranian media is growing.
The worry is headlined in Fars News, the outlet of the Revolutionary Guards, with its English-language site featuring four articles.

The IRGC issued a statement insisting, “Terrorist actions under the command and support of the spy agencies of the arrogant and colonial powers will not be able to harm the sincere and determined will of the Iranian nation.”

The Guards asserted, “Defenders of the Islamic Revolution and borders of the country will continue combating the anti-revolutionaries, outlaws and aggressive terrorists decisively and powerfully in future.”

As Tehran said the attackers fled from Sistan and Baluchestan Province into Pakistan, Iran’s Chief of Police Esmail Ahmadi Moqaddam lashed out,
“The Pakistani government has always condemned these attacks, but it brings excuses that it does not have a strong presence along the border with Iran and it cannot, hence, control the border. These are all excuses and we cannot accept them.”

And the Commander of the Border Guard Force, Hossein Zolfaqari, accused countries in and beyond the region of providing financial and intelligence support to the insurgents:

Based on the authentic intelligence that we have, terrorist grouplets are supported financially by two countries in the region and outside the region.

Also, three countries in and outside the region are providing intelligence and technical equipment to the terrorist grouplets.

The terrorist grouplets never had the power to attack the Islamic Republic’s border guards if they were not supported by other countries.

And the judiciary said eight members of the Jundullah insurgency — already in prison and unconnected with the killing of the border guards — had been executed because the “terrorist attack proved that the terrorist group hasn’t changed its approach and is still continuing its terrorist acts against the innocent Iranian people”.

A judicial official said over the weekend that 16 prisoners had been put to death.

The articles put into sharp relief last week’s declaration by the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, that 11 “terrorist” plots had been foiled recently by Iranian forces.

Tehran has maintained that, with the executions in 2011 of Jundullah’s leaders, the insurgency in the southeast had been quelled. However, the continued presence of the faction Harakat Ansar Iran and the emergence of a new Sunni group, Jaish ul-Adl, put a question mark over the claims.

By EA WorldView

 

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