BAGHDAD - Several Iraqis were injured by a massive car bomb planted next to a highway in southern Iraq, the Iranian opposition group The People's Mujahedeen claimed Sunday.

"On Saturday, terrorists dispatched by the mullahs' regime (in Tehran) committed another terrorist crime by blowing up a car bomb on the Baghdad-Kut highway," the group said in a statement.

"Several Iraqi citizens were injured ... (and) the blast of the car bomb, a pick-up truck laden with explosives, inflicted heavy damages on a Mujahedeen car and several other vehicles belonging to Iraqi citizens," the group said.

The incident took place about 175 miles south of the capital Baghdad, the Mujahedeen said, without saying whether any of its fighters had been injured.

The Mujahedeen, which reports frequent Iranian strikes on its positions said this was the 81st such attack since 1993.

Earlier this month, the group said six people had died and scores were injured in a missile attack on one of its military bases in southern Iraq. It blamed the attack on Tehran, but this was denied by the Iranian foreign ministry.

Led by Massoud Rajavi, the Mujahedeen in 1986 set up an Iranian National Liberation Army (INLA) which it claims has some 50,000 fighters.

[Underscoring the Resistance's unalienable right to respond to such barbarous, inhuman crimes, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran once again urges the United Nations Secretary General, the Security Council and the current session of the General Assembly and all international human rights organizations and advocates to condemn the clerical regime's terrorist crimes and take urgent measures against the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran.]
 

Rafsanjani Calls For Calm Ahead Of Elections, Agence France Presse, November 12

TEHRAN - Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Friday called for calm between the country's feuding rival factions ahead of key parliamentary elections next February.

"We are getting close to important elections, we need calm, and we have to give our people the opportunity to think in peace," Rafsanjani told worshippers at the main weekly Muslim prayers at Tehran University.

The former president, who now heads the powerful Expediency Council, said "explanations and raising the people's awareness" were desirable activities, but warned that (factional) "disputes and the covering of truths ... is an offence towards Iran and Islam, and a service to the United States."

He said the factional feuding within the Islamic regime was also jeopardizing Iran's efforts to attract sorely needed foreign investment.

An "insecure atmosphere, internal and foreign threats, as well as disputes among officials," will not provide an "appropriate atmosphere for investment."

"The two main forces of the regime, which are faithful to the revolution, must reconcile themselves in order to isolate those who do not belong to us," supreme leader Ali Khamenei said last.
 

More Students Jailed For Summer Uprising, Reuters, November 14

TEHRAN - A court sentenced a group of students to jail terms ranging from eight months to eight years for their role in pro-democracy unrest in the northwestern city of Tabriz last July, a newspaper reported.

The Khordad daily did not say how many students had been convicted, but said the court had acquitted 14 others.

In September a revolutionary court sentenced 21 people to jail for their part in the riots that broke out in Tabriz in sympathy with similar demonstrations in Tehran that ran for six days and culminated in running street violence.
 

Woman Editor to Go On Trial, Agence France Presse, November 14

TEHRAN - An Iranian woman newspaper editor goes on trial before the country's press court Monday for allegedly insulting the clerical regime, a judicial source said Monday.

Jaleh Oskui, 40, head of the Penj-Shanbeh-ha weekly, was arrested last October 10 and held in jail until October 18 before being allowed out on bail.

It was the first time a female editor had been remanded in jail in the running battle between the reformist press and Iran's conservative courts and parliament.

Iran's ministry of culture and Islamic guidance is among the plaintiffs.

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