Back to Brief on Iran
BAGHDAD - An Iranian exile group based in Iraq said on Saturday that a bomb exploded near their headquarters in Baghdad, killing three Iraqis and seriously wounding 11.
The Mujahideen Khalq said in a statement faxed to Reuters office in Baghdad that the bomb exploded late on Friday as a car belonging to the group was heading down Saadoun Street in the center of Baghdad.
"The clerical regime's terrorists detonated a remote- controlled bomb on Saadoun Street, near Fordows Square in Baghdad, half-miles from the Mujahideen's office, as a Mujahideen vehicle was about to turn at an intersection," the statement said.
"Three Iraqi citizen -- a four-year-old girl, a 65-year-old street vender and his 15-year-old son -- were killed and 11 other Iraqi citizens were seriously wounded in this terrorist crime," it added.
The bomb, which it said was the "65th terrorist operation by the mullah's regime since 1993," also damaged buildings and shops, the statement said.
An Iraqi civil defence source on Saturday confirmed the blast saying that Iraqi police were investigating.
Two of the three passengers in the opposition group's car were seriously injured, the group said.
The organization’s bases have been the target of air and rocket attacks by Iran and its office in Baghdad, now ringed by a concrete wall, has weathered several mortar and bomb attacks.
[Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran offered his condolences to the families of innocent victims of this heinous crime. He strongly condemned this indiscriminate and inhuman attack and called on the government of Iraq to pursue, prosecute and punish the clerical regime's terrorists who are doubtless linked with the mullahs' embassy in Baghdad.]
NCR Condemns Bombings in Africa, Iran
Zamin News Agency, August 8
Yesterday, the U.S. Representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, made the following remark concerning the Friday’s bombings in Africa:
"We condemn the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and killing of the innocent civilians, and offer our condolences to families of the victims."
Africa Blasts Probably Done by Highly Organized Group,
Associated Press, August 9
WASHINGTON - Senior U.S. officials promised Sunday to track down those who committed the "unadulterated evil" of blowing up two American embassies in East Africa -- and to strike back if the attacks were sponsored by a government.
While U.S. officials refused to speculate on who might be responsible for the almost simultaneous explosions in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi and Tanzania's capital, Dar es Salaam, they said the attacks appeared to be perpetrated by a highly trained and organized terrorist organization or group.
FBI: Iran Bombed Argentine Jews, Associated
Press, August 9
BUENOS AIRES - An FBI report has identified Iran as the main suspect in the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center, Argentina's interior minister said Sunday.
The report, which accuses Iran of organizing and financing the bombing, is "very important and a "significant contribution" to the ongoing investigation into the attack, said Interior Minister Carlos Corach.
Federal Judge Juan Jose Galeano, who is overseeing the case, is scheduled to receive the report this week, according to a court source who spoke on condition of customary anonymity. Galeano has also been looking into Iranian involvement, although he has presented no conclusive evidence against the Teheran government.
The newspaper Clarin first reported the existence of the report on Friday, saying a group of 10 FBI experts conducted a 40-day investigation in the Argentine capital and had delivered its findings to Corach last week.
According to Clarin, the report pointed to the former cultural attache of the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, Mohsen Rabbani, as the main suspect.
Rabbani left Argentina last year, when his name was mentioned in Galeano's investigation.
Khatami Calls Israel A "Plague", Agence
France Presse, August 9
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday called Israel a "plague" and "the greatest enemy of Islam and humanity," Iranian state radio reported.
"Israel is the greatest enemy of Islam and humanity ... and to resist this plague there is no solution except unity among Moslem countries," Khatami said during a meeting with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Jawad Anani, who arrived here Saturday.
Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has called for its "annihilation" and supports radical Lebanese and Palestinian movements fighting the Jewish state.