NICOSIA - Iran's armed opposition claimed Wednesday to have launched a new attack in southwestern Iran, killing or wounding "dozens" of elite Revolutionary Guards and other troops.

The People's Mojahadeen said in a statement that the clashes had occurred north of Saleh-Abad in Ilam province. One of the attackers was also killed in the fighting, the statement said.

On January 9 the opposition said its fighters had killed or wounded "dozens" of Revolutionary Guards, Bassiji militia and other members of the security forces in attacks on three areas of the province of Ilam.

A Mojahadeen spokesman told AFP that the group had made 23 attacks in 40 days.
 

Mullahs' Regime Seeks to Extend Its Repression to Streets of London, Iran Zamin News Agency, January 11

The mullahs' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi commented after his meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair: "Our problem with the British government is that terrorist groups such as the People's Mojahedin Organization are free to conduct their activities in Britain. The Iranian government finds such a policy unacceptable."

Kharrazi's comments and his desperate pleas to foreign governments to limit the activities of Resistance supporters amount to an open admission to the weakness of the mullahs' regime vis-a-vis the Mojahedin and the Iranian Resistance.

The policy of appeasement that certain Western governments, including Britain, exercise towards the clerical regime only emboldens this regime to further pursue its policy of blackmail and step up repression inside Iran and export of terrorism abroad. This is a regime whose rule, in the words of one British newspaper, is comparable to the Mongolian occupation of the 13th century.
 

Jailed Students Go on Hunger Strike, Reuters, January 12

TEHRAN - Several Iranian students jailed for their alleged role in social unrest in July have gone on hunger strike, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Among the strikers is 22-year-old Ahmad Batebi, sentenced to 10 years in prison for engaging in propaganda against the state, Sobh-e Emrouz newspaper said.

Photographs of Batebi holding up a bloody shirt, which belonged to a student friend who had been severely beaten in an attack on dormitories by police and hardline vigilantes, were widely used in Western media.

Students went on hunger strike to protest being locked up in cells with murderers and drug traffickers, the newspaper said.
 

Intelligence Chief Worried About Apathy Towards Election!, Reuters, January 12

TEHRAN - Iran's powerful intelligence chief has said the people, not the secret service, should assess candidates for next month's parliamentary elections. Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi, appointed last February in the wake of the "mystery murders" of dissidents, told Entekhab newspaper his agency had exercised unprecedented restraint in vetting candidates for the February 18 poll.

"The danger of these people getting into parliament is much less than that of the people not taking part in the elections," he said.

"The ill effect of decreased public participation is much greater than the effect of the presence of certain people in parliament. Not paying attention to the people is very dangerous," said Yunesi, a mid-ranking Shi'ite Moslem cleric.
 

Daily Warns About "National Crisis," "Political Tension", State News Agency, IRNA, January 10

TEHRAN - A morning daily Monday pointed to major discussions taking place in political circles and newspapers regarding the disqualification of a large number of candidates for the next parliamentary elections and said "if the number of rejected nominees is as large as reported, the possibility of political tension is great."

"Elimination of well-known politicians from various groups, men and women who represent group thoughts and policies, could well turn partisan differences into a national crisis," wrote the daily Iran News in its editorial.

Stressing that neither the people nor the leadership and other officials wish for such events to take place in the country, the article concluded by saying "a quick, practical and amicable solution must be found to address the grievances of the rejected nominees before it is too late."
 

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