21 Apr 2010 – Medya News – Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested members of an extremist group in the west of the country who had planned to carry out “terrorist attacks” in the Islamic state, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said the group, identified and arrested by the Intelligence Ministry, was armed and guided by American forces, IRNA reported.
Mohammad-Najjar did not identify the group or say whether those detained belonged to Kurdish separatist groups, based in mountainous areas close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey.
Like Iraq and Turkey, Iran has a large Kurdish minority, mainly living in the country’s northwest and west.
Sectarian violence is relatively rare in Iran, whose leaders reject allegations by Western rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.
None of the Iranian Kurdish oppoistion groups have admitted that their members or affilliated activists have been detained.
Earlier in January of this year Iranian media had reportedthat on an early morning raid on Saturday on the offices of the intelligence and governorship in the city of Mariwan in Iranian Kurdistan five high level staffers have been arrested accused of collaborating with a Kurdish opposition group.
Kurds in Iran make up approximately 17 percent of Iran 70 million population and they are are primarily situated in north and north west of the country.
with some reports from Reuters
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