NICOSIA - Iran's armed opposition movement, the People's Mojahedin, has said its military units launched a Katyusha rocket attack on a garrison in western Iran Tuesday.

"A number of enemy agents ... were killed or wounded" in the attack on the command headquarters of the 35th Commando Brigade in Darbalout Garrison in Gilan-e Gharb, the group said in a statement faxed to AFP here.

The statement said it was the first time their units had used 122 mm Katyusha rockets.

It said the action had been undertaken in retaliation for a "bloody crackdown" on an uprising in the western town of Piranshahr on July 3 and 4.

[Iran Zamin News Agency: The 35th Commando Brigade is an elite force in the mullahs' army. It was formed in 1987 on Khomeini's direct orders and was made up entirely of fiercely fanatical agents of the regime, the so-called Hezbollahi forces. The brigade's forces act as independent units and lay ambush in different parts on western Iran, acting in coordination with the Revolutionary Guards, the State Security Forces and other army units.]

The Mojahedin reported on July 5 that thousands of residents of Piranshahr had clashed with Revolutionary Guards after a 12-year old boy was shot dead by "intelligence agents" and that at least two people had been killed in the riots and about 500 arrested.
 

Mortar Attack On Mullahs' Revolutionary Guards, Agence France Presse, July 18

PARIS - The People's Mojahedin, said they carried out a mortar attack late Monday on a position of the Revolutionary Guards near Ahwaz in southern Iran.

The movement said the Karbala Garrison northeast of Ahwaz housed the general command headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards in southern Iran and the command HQ of the Guards' 7th Vali-Asr Division.

In a communiqué received in Paris, the Mojahedin said "operational units poured a heavy barrage of 82mm mortars [in retaliation for the bloody suppression of the popular uprising in city of Abadan.]" on the position, adding: "A number of Revolutionary Guards and agents of the mullahs' regime were killed or wounded in the attack."

The Mojahedin, who reported a mortar attack Saturday evening in Tehran, have been stepping up pressure on the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Saturday's attack was against the intelligence ministry.
 
 

Cohen Sees Iran Making Progress With Missiles, The Washington Times, July 18

Iran's successful flight test of its new medium-range Shahab-3 shows Tehran is moving ahead with several types of long-range missiles, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said yesterday…

"Any time you have a success in a theater missile system — that gives you confidence to go forward with more tests with greater capability," Mr. Cohen said in an in-flight interview aboard an Air Force C-32 jetliner…

The missile is capable of hitting Israel and U.S. forces based in the Persian Gulf.

Iran is believed to be developing two longer-range missiles known as the Shahab-4 and Shahab-5, the latter having intercontinental range…

Only two weeks before Mr. Cohen arrived in Beijing, China concluded a technology agreement with Iran. London's Arabic newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, reported June 22 that Iranian President Mohammed Khatami was in Beijing to seal a "strategic partnership" with China, including cooperation on a new generation of Silkworm anti-ship cruise missiles…
 

Publisher of Daily Which Reported Khatami's Role In Massacre Of Political Prisoners, Convicted, Agence France Presse, July 18

TEHRAN - A jury on Monday found the editor of the banned daily Arya guilty, after only his second appearance before the press court, according to a statement released by Tehran's Palace of Justice.

"The jury found Hamid Reza Zohdi guilty of provoking public opinion by publishing false information, defamation and insults, notably of violating the election law in his newspaper," said the statement.

The jury, made up of both reformists and conservatives, found that Zohdi "could not benefit from mitigating circumstances because of a previous conviction."

[Iran Zamin News Agency: On April 10, the clerical regime's newspapers reported that the daily Arya, "has been ordered to cease publication on the personal orders of the President and the speedy intervention of the Minister of Islamic Guidance after it published an article on the massacre of political prisoners in 1988."

[The English-language daily, Iran News, wrote on April 9: "The death sentences were issued when President Mohammad Khatami was the deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces for ideological and cultural issues. He used to implement Imam Khomeini's verdicts in the most serious manner."]

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