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Thousands of Iranians ready for suicide raids |
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Friday, 23 July 2004 |
Reuters
By Parinoosh Arami
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranians have signed up for suicide attacks on Israel, U.S.-led forces in Iraq and British author Salman Rushdie, a recruiting group said on Saturday.
Shi'ite Iran has strongly condemned the occupation of Iraq and voiced its outrage at damage to shrines in the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
The father of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, condemned Rushdie to death in 1989 for alleged blasphemy in his novel "The Satanic Verses".
"Some 10,000 people have registered their names to carry out martyrdom operations on our defined targets," said Mohammad Ali Samadi, a spokesman for the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign.
But he said the group would need the green light from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to launch the attacks.
The independent group said it started to register Iranian men and women prepared to carry out the attacks after Friday prayers last week and sent forms to religious universities.
"Our targets are mainly the occupying American and British forces in the holy Iraqi cities, all the Zionists in Palestine, and Salman Rushdie," he said.
"It is not our fault that the Zionists have brought their wives and children to the occupied territories and have turned them into shields for themselves," he added, when asked about the killing of civilians.
"Salman Rushdie is the only non-military target for us, because we believe his attack against Islam was much worse that a military assault," the spokesman said.
Hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran to attack U.S. and British interests.
"It is the duty of every Muslim to threaten U.S. and British interests anywhere," he said.
Although Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami said in 2001 the death sentence against Rushdie should be seen as lifted, hardliners still occasionally call for his murder. |
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Iran's nuclear standoff |
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AP: Iran's official news agency says Tehran has proposed building joint light-water nuclear power plants with neighboring Arab countries.
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Reuters: Iran is showing "utter disrespect" for the U.N. nuclear watchdog by ignoring unanswered questions about its atomic programme, European powers said on Thursday.
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Reuters: The British ambassador was summoned to Iran's Foreign Ministry this week over British comments about Tehran's disputed nuclear work, state media said.
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AFP: Allegations of illicit nuclear programmes by Syria and Iran came under the spotlight Thursday at a crunch meeting of the UN's atomic watchdog.
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Reuters: Russia will complete Iran's first nuclear power plant in 2009, Itar-Tass news agency quoted the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation as saying on Thursday.
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New York Times: Iran said Wednesday its main uranium-enrichment plant was now equipped with 5,000 centrifuges — a sharp increase from the 4,000 it announced in August. machines that spin incredibly fast to enrich the element into nuclear fuel.
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Daily Telegraph: Iran has claimed that its nuclear programme now has 5,000 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium.
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Reuters: Iran now has 5,000 working uranium enrichment centrifuges, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday, signalling an expansion of work the West fears is aimed at making nuclear bombs.
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AFP: Iran now has more than 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in operation, as it pushes ahead with its controversial nuclear programme, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation chief said on Wednesday.
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Reuters: Iran has successfully launched a rocket called "Kavosh 2," Iran's state media reported on Wednesday, displaying the Islamic state's advances in ballistics at a time when the West is worried about its nuclear ambitions.
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