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The People's Mojahedin, the main armed Iranian opposition movement, said on Thursday that its members killed a terrorist from the Iranian regime during a clash near Baghdad.
"A terrorist hit-squad from the clerical regime ... who were carrying silencer-equipped revolvers, opened fire on three members of the Mojahedin at the entry to the city of Khalis, north of Baghdad," it said in a statement.
"Reacting quickly, the Mojahedin returned fire. One of the terrorists was killed and two others fled the scene," the group said, adding that none of its members was injured in the incident on Wednesday evening.
The Mojahedin said the attack was the "61st terrorist operation by the mullah's religious terrorist dictatorship" on Iraqi territory since 1993.
The last assault was on March 2, when Iranian forces attacked Mojahedin in Iraqi territory, killing six people.
Iran Denies Softening Stand on Mideast Peace,
Reuter, April 2
TEHRAN—Iran denied on Thursday it had softened its stand on the Middle East peace process.
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, quoted by Iranian television, said Iran "has not approved of the peace process from the beginning and has always condemned it."
The television report said Kharrazi was reacting to recent remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who it said had "claimed that Iran's tone toward the Middle East peace process had become more moderate."
Kharrazi, who returned to Tehran on Wednesday from a visit to Syria and Lebanon, has condemned the peace process as a sell-out of Palestinian and Moslem rights.
Iran says its arch-foe Israel is illegitimate and has no right to exist.
Iran To Raise Fuel Prices By Up To 50 Percent,
Reuter, April 2
TEHRAN— Iran is to raise its fuel prices by as much as 50 percent state-run Tehran radio said on Thursday.
It said the price of regular and lead-free gasoline would increase on Sunday to 200 rials a liter from 160 rials, while premium petrol would be raised 60 rials to 280 rials.
The annual move would also raise kerosene and diesel by 20 rials to 60 rials a liter.
Fuel oil would be lifted 10 rials to 30 rials, it added.
Similar increases in the past few years were blamed for triggering a string of price rises and drew public criticism.
Although Iran is the world's third largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Norway, it has on occasion imported some oil products, such as gasoline, to meet local demand.
Official figures put annual inflation at about 17 percent in the Iranian year which ended on March 20.
Iran Cleric Protests Treatment of Montazeri, BBC, April 2
A former Iranian revolutionary judge, Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, has protested against the way the Iranian authorities are treating a senior cleric, Ayatollah Hussain Ali Montazeri.
In a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Khalkhali urged him to lift restrictions imposed on Montazeri to allow him to return to normal life and resume teaching.
Montazeri has been under house arrest since last November when he questioned the authority of Khamenei.
Two weeks ago, about four-hundred Iranian clerics declared that Montazeri's house arrest was unconstitutional.