Iran accuses U.S. of backing terror network, bombing plot
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
NICOSIA — The Iranian Interior Ministry has reported the capture of what officials described as a U.S.-financed and -sponsored cell that bombed an Islamic cultural center in Shiraz in April.
The ministry said the squad was also directed to attack Iranian crude oil and natural gas pipelines as part of an effort to destabilize the Islamic regime in Teheran.
"Investigations from the suspects indicated that a terrorist network has been backed by the United States," the ministry said on May 17.
The ministry statement said it captured documents that pointed to Israeli and U.S. support for the insurgency group. The ministry said the United States trained and equipped those who bombed the Shiraz cultural center, in which at least 14 people were killed on April 12. The training was said to have included diving lessons for sabotage missions.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Gulam Hussein Mohseni Ejei said 15 Iranians were arrested in connection with the Shiraz bombing. He said security forces seized explosives, maps and weapons.
For more than a month, Iran denied that the explosion in Shiraz comprised an attack. Instead, Teheran said the explosion in the mosque complex stemmed from a gas leak.
"Bombing oil pipelines had been on the sabotage agenda of this group, and American centers provided diving lessons for them to identify pipelines in the Persian Gulf for this aim," Ejei said. "Legal and diplomatic measures will be taken against the United States and Britain on completion of investigations and intelligence."
On May 14, Ejei said the squad also planned to attack the Russian consulate in northern Iran. Russia has been the key supplier to Iran's nuclear program.
"This network that the Americans had armed with different terrorist tools such as chemicals, explosive materials, dangerous and poisonous cyanide was guided directly by American agents into Iran," the Intelligence Ministry said.
The Intelligence Ministry listed what it termed a range of targets drafted by the insurgency network. The targets were said to have included oil pipelines, the annual Teheran book fair as well as scientific, religious and educational facilities.
"American agents had told members of this network that their main mission was to spread fear among people in different cities," the ministry said.
Iran has also charged the U.S. military with shooting toward Iranian diplomats in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said U.S. agents opened fire on an Iranian embassy motorcade on May 15, and that three diplomats and an embassy staffer were injured.