Iranian elite guard members killed

Tehran: Eleven members of the elite Revolutionary Guard were killed in clashes earlier this week with armed bandits in southeastern Iran, state-run television reported yesterday.

The clashes took place on Thursday in a mountainous area near Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The broadcast said security forces have vowed "tough revenge" for the deaths, which were carried out by drug traffickers who learned of the group's plan to ambush them.

The official Irna news agency yesterday said that two of the outlaws responsible for the deaths had been arrested.

State television reported on Friday that four of the bandits had been killed in the fighting.

A Sunni group called Jundallah, or God's Brigade, which has been blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops, has been active in the area. Iran hanged a member of the group in February convicted of a bombing that killed 11 guardsmen in Zahedan.

US support

Following the recent clashes, the head of the Revolutionary Guard, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, accused the United States of backing militant groups to destabilise Iran, a newspaper reported yesterday.

"The US support for armed bandits, thieves, drug traffickers and terrorists with the aim of creating instability in the country shows the desperation and meanness of this so called superpower that has failed in every effort to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran system," the daily Hambastegi quoted Safavi as saying from Zahedan.

Iran has repeatedly accused the United States of backing militants and ethnic opposition groups to destabilise the Iranian government. Tensions between Tehran and Washington are growing over allegations of Iranian involvement in attacks on US troops in Iraq, and over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

A majority of Iran's population are Shiites but minority Sunnis live in southeastern Iran, a region long plagued by lawlessness.

The area is a key crossing point for narcotics from Afghanistan.