Resistance forces clash with regime's mercenaries

Mojahedin Command HQ in Iran, Jan. 6 - Following Rafsanjani's 4-day trip to the western Iranian Ilam province, the mullahs' Intelligence Ministry has been issuing consecutive news everyday on the murder and arrest of a number of Mojahedin in the provin ces of Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzistan. The mullahs are thus vainly trying to attribute to Iraq the rising tide of popular resistance and activities of the Resistance's units in western provinces.

In a desperate attempt yesterday, the regime's official news agency made a preposterous claim that in Khuzistan, the Mojahedin had "infiltrated" their own country "under the supervision of an Iraqi Intelligence officer." On Saturday, Jan. 4 (15 Day), I RNA reported on "a clash in western Iran and the deaths of two members of the Mojahedin." The day before, it said the Mojahedin had attacked Qasr-e Shirin.

Apparently, the regime's news agency has not yet received any reports from the Intelligence Ministry and the Security Forces' Command on the clashes in Kermanshah, Islamabad, Gilan-e Gharb, Salehabad, Mehran, Dehloran, Andimeshk, Dezful, Ahwaz, Khorram shahr and Abadan. Also, it remains absolutely silent about the activities of the Resistance forces in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Saravan, Bandar Abbas, Meshkinshahr, Ardebil, Mashhad, Birjand, Sanandaj, Zahedan, Zabol and dozens of other cities. The Resista nce forces' activities have further escalated in the new phase of the resistance.

It seems that in addition to preparing the grounds for terrorist attacks and military operations against National Liberation Army bases, the daily dissemination of reports on the arrest and deaths of Mojahedin members and sympathizers in Iran and their attribution to Iraq by the regime's news agency, are aimed at staging a hollow show of force to boost the morale of the regime's demoralized forces.

In mid-December (first week of Persian month Day), following the popular uprisings in various cities of Kermanshah province and on the eve of Rafsanjani's visit to the cities of Ilam, Mehran, Dehloran, Mousian, Abdanan and Ivan-e Gharb, the social clim ate has been very tense in the western parts of Iran and the forces of popular resistance had to rise to their duties. In the course of these clashes, a number of Mojahedin and forces of popular resistance were slain and the wave of extensive arrests in w estern Iran continues.

It was not without reason, that on Jan. 2 (13 Day), Tehran radio reported that Rafsanjani "met with the forces of Bassij before he left Ilam province on Thursday evening." The radio also reported that earlier in the presence of Rafsanjani, "the garriso n and headquarters of Ilam's Security Zone began operating and at the same time, the district and regional headquarters of Ilam and the border stations of Gomrok, Halali Shomali, Shoor Shirin, Nahr-e Anbar, Bayat-e Dow, Mehran, Dehloran and the Security S tation in Qu'ar were inaugurated."

It should be noted that contrary to the claims of the mullahs' SAVAK and the bogus news disseminated by the regime's press and news agency, no Mojahedin members were arrested or slain last week in western Iran.

Fuel shortages and discontent

NCR secretariat, Dec. 26 - With the beginning of the cold season and severe shortage of fuel in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, social discontent and unrest are spreading and the situation is tense throughout the province, reports from Iran say.

In recent days in Khash, Iranshahr, and the provincial capital of Zahedan, people assembled in front of the governor's office and other government centers and staged demonstrations. Among others, they chanted, "the regime gives free oil to Syria, but p eople are dying from cold in Sistan and Baluchistan."

Security Forces alarmed

NCR secretariat, Jan. 2 - According to a report by Tehran Radio, the commanders and deputy commanders of the regional security forces began a nationwide meeting in Tehran to review ways of improving enforcement of security and public order.

Death sentences and arrests

AFP, Jan. 4 - Kayhan reported that two Iranians, accused of attempting to overthrow the Islamic regime and spying for Israel and the U.S. were executed Sunday in Tehran. The victims were Hedayatollah Zendedel, a Jewish merchant who had converted to Islam, and Abdol-Qassem Majd Abkahi.

Reuter, Dec. 24 - Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against an Iranian woman, Sheyda Khorramzadeh Esfahani, for acting as a procuress for a gang convicted of economic sabotage and spying, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

The daily Iran said the Supreme Court also upheld death sentences against three men, two businessmen and a former air force officer, convicted of setting up several companies as fronts for their operations which included defrauding state banks o f large sums, bribing officials and helping people leave Iran illegally.

Voice of Iranian Kurdistan, Dec. 22 - The regime has made dozens of arrests in the city of Piranshahr (western Iran) in pursuit of its suppressive policies.

Oppressive human and women's rights!

Tehran radio, Dec. 26 - Khamenei's sermon in meeting with thousands of people in Tehran: Never in the history of mankind, have oppression, corruption and rebellion been so extensive. Never in the history of mankind, has man used so much deception and f orce under the pretext of human rights and women's rights to inflict so extensive oppression on nations...

Repression of Shiite clergy criticized

BBC radio, Farsi service, Jan. 2 - In a speech made recently in Iran for the students of Qom's seminary school, [Hossein Ali] Montazeri strongly criticized the disrespect shown towards the top Shiite authorities and said: The sanctuary and residences o f the authorities are trespassed and attacked. The authorities are unfortunately humiliated. They have been scorned and become a plaything for children...

This Ministry of Intelligence has formed a directorate in the ministry which scrutinizes the works of the authorities. They have employed two, three illiterate boys and made them comment on the works of the grand clergy!! [Montazeri was Khomeini's designate successor who fell out of favor for criticizing the massacre of political prisoners in 1988]

Not earning enough

Ettela'at daily, Dec. 25 - The Center of Statistics of Iran announced that it has surveyed the expenditure and incomes of some 20,196 urban families in [the Persian year of] 1374 [Mar. 1995- Mar. 1996]. The net average income of an urban family is 8,879,638 rials, which shows 42% increase compared to the previous year.

The net annual income of an urban family, after subtracting the taxes, etc., is about 7,368,243 rials, which shows a 28.6% increase compared to the previous year.

Plunging carpet exports

Hamshahri, Dec. 23 - Iran's export of carpets continues to drop. Shams Ardakani, director general of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Mines told reporters many job opportunities will be lost if there no solutions are found for the problem o f plunging carpet exports. Harischian, head of the Union of exporters of carpet, said some ten million people work in the carpet industry are threatened with dismissals.

FOREIGN

Stone mines for Hezbollah

Al-Jordan weekly, Dec. 30 - The Hezbollah of Lebanon received some mines from Iran called "stone mines." On Dec. 13, three 747 Boeings flew arms from Iran to Damascus. The cargo was sent directly to the Hezbollah of Lebanon. Military experts say it is impossible to distinguish the mines from stones, because their colors are very similar. They could be planted on any road or left on the ground. As people approach their magnetic field, they explode. These mines are very sensitive and have strong e xplosive power.

FEATURE

Mullahs, Look!
Women, Armed And Dangerous
By Douglas Jehl

The New York Times, Dec. 30 -...By the map, Camp Ashraf lies in Iraq, 60 miles north of Baghdad. But a more accurate description would be the military headquarters of Iran-in-exile, and a place unto itself.

The sprawling camp is home to the leadership of the National Liberation Army, a formidable Iranian opposition force. It is also home to unfathomable devotion toward the 43-year-old woman her disciples say should be Iran's next leader.

"We love Maryam Rajavi," men in camouflage dress chanted after braving a pool of fire in an exercise of their own. "And we promise to take her to Tehran." Built up on a barren salt plain beginning about a decade ago, the army, now some 30,000 strong, is by any measure the best-armed opposition force poised outside any country's borders.

With raids deep into Iran in 1988, in the closing months of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, it equipped itself with some $2 billion worth of weapons, including American-made armored personnel carriers and British-made Chieftain tanks.... But to hear its members tell it, the real strength of the National Liberation Army derives from faith in Mrs. Rajavi and her husband, Massoud, architects of a force so highly motivated and disciplined that it borders on the bizarre.

Uniforms display neither rank nor insignia, in an effort to promote "camaraderie and fraternity in our struggle," said Kobra Tahmasbi, 39, a division commander.

Mrs. Tahmasbi and most other top officers are women, whose standard-issue attire includes khaki head scarves and modestly cut tunics that would be acceptable even on a Tehran street but who exercise an authority unimaginable at home....

Only twice since its formation has the opposition army fought head-to-head against Iran, in the operations of 1988, when it once pushed more than 100 miles into Iran, and in 1991, when Iran's Revolutionary Guards invaded Iraq in an attempt to crush the resistance at the end of the Persian Gulf war. By most accounts, the National Liberation Army has acquitted itself well, demonstrating an ability to confront and defeat some of Iran's best armored units. It has also withstood years of indirect attacks, including an Iranian Scud missile attack in 1991, and shootings and car bombings even at its office in Baghdad as part of a worldwide Iranian assassination campaign. The force has been well-financed, mostly by contributions to the National Council of Resistance from inside Iran, its top officials say... .

As soldiers and officers filed into a dining hall for lunch recently, a huge photograph of Mrs. Rajavi, smiling beatifically, stood perched on an easel at the head of the room.

Around the room, television sets were showing videotapes of Mrs. Rajavi's triumphal return this month to Iraq after three years in Paris, the organization's political headquarters, and there were throaty cheers.

"I have found my final answer in Maryam Rajavi," said Mohammed Taslimi, 46, a political prisoner under the Shah who is the camp's chief of logistics. "Maryam Rajavi is anathema to the Khomeini ideology, and that's why she is the cure."

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