Several Mojahedin military units launched a series of major attacks in the early hours of Saturday on five centers of the mullahs' suppressive forces in the southwestern city of Moussian, the Mojahedin Command Headquarters in Iran announced in a communiqui.

Pounding these centers with barrages of 82mm mortars, the Mojahedin units inflicted heavy casualties on the mullahs' repressive forces and severely damaged these installations.

The targets of today's assaults by the Mojahedin units included the headquarters of the mullahs' crack 23rd Commando Division (special forces), the electronic surveillance center of the Southern Command, a special border reconnaissance unit belonging to the 65th Special Forces Brigade, the State Security Forces headquarters and a terrorist training center involved in the dispatch
of terrorist agents abroad. All were situated in the city of Moussian and the outlying areas.

Units belonging to the 23rd Commando Division murdered three Mojahedin fighters, Mohammad Abravan, Siavosh Keikavoussi and Rassoul Ghanavati, in this area last July after extensive clashes.

The Mojahedin Command Headquarters inside Iran warned "all repressive forces under the command of the religious dictatorship in Iran that participating in the suppression of the people and execution and torture of the courageous sons and daughters of Iran will never be left unanswered."
 

"LACK OF INFORMATION" OVER SPY CASE, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, DECEMBER 11

TEHRAN - The parliamentary representative of Iran's Jewish community has deplored the lack of information over the case of 13 Jews arrested in Iran for alleged spying for Israel, a press report said Saturday.

"The judiciary has not told us anything about their release or detention and we do not know what stage their cases have arrived at," the moderate Azad paper quoted Manuchehr Eliasi as saying.

They face the death sentence if convicted under a 1996 law which imposes capital punishment on those found guilty of spying for the United States or Iran's arch-enemy Israel.

In November, the United Nations General Assembly called on Tehran to guarantee a "fair and transparent trial" for the accused.
 

CLERICAL BODY OPPOSES KHATAMI'S ECONOMIC PLAN, REUTERS, DECEMBER 11

TEHRAN - A clergy-based body in Iran has opposed key features of Khatami's privatization plans, newspapers said on Saturday.

The Guardian Council, a powerful state body that vets laws passed by parliament, said it opposed 11 provisions in Khatami's five-year economic plan.

Newspapers quoted council spokesman Ayatollah Reza Ostadi as calling unconstitutional the provisions in the plan. Iran's constitution demands that major and strategic economic sectors remain in state hands. The council is expected to return the plan to parliament to be amended to conform to the constitution. The move by the Guardian Council further weakens Khatami's economic
plan, which was already diluted by the parliament in a debate last month.
 

IRANIAN ANTI-STEALTH, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, DECEMBER 10

Iran is shopping Eastern Europe for Czech-made electronic warfare systems known as Tamara, according to Pentagon officials. The systems are supposed to be able to track U.S. radar-evading stealth aircraft -- the Pentagon's most important weapons and the future of most U.S. weapons systems, whether aircraft, missiles, ships or vehicles.

Officials tell us the Iranians have been working the illegal arms market in Eastern Europe to find a supplier for the systems, which are manufactured by the Czech Republic's Tesla-Pardubice Co....
 

COURT DENIES NOURI CHANCE TO REGISTER, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, DECEMBER 12

TEHRAN - An Iranian court Saturday dealt Khatami's faction a major blow by denying by one of their most popular leaders a temporary release from jail so he could register his candidacy for key parliamentary elections next February.

The Special Court for Clergy, which jailed former vice president and interior minister Abdollah Nuri for anti-Islamic propaganda last month, rejected a request for temporary freedom as registration for the elections opened.
 

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