According to Fars News writing in Persian, the Jondallah terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the assassination of local Iranian prosecutor, Ibrahim Karimi. Jondallah ("Army of God") is an ethnic Baluchi separatist group that is conducting an ongoing campaign against Iranian officials and military personal in the Sistan-Baluchistan region of southeastern Iran. Iranian authorities announced 11 arrests in the border town of Saravan in response to the recent assassination. (Another report on local Iranian television translated by OSC reported 20 arrested suspects.)Like other Iranian news organs, Fars blames the US for supporting the Jondallah insurgency.
This latest incident comes just a week after Jondallah (aka the People's Resistance Movement of Iran) ambushed an Iranian military border station and kidnapped 16 soldiers. Tabnak writing in Persian reports that Jondallah released a video of the captives to Al-Arabiyya television. Tabnak intimates that Al-Arabiyya's showing of the video is evidence of Saudi support for the Jondallah militants.
Jondallah has threatened to kill the remaining soldiers (they claim to have already killed two) if Iran does not release the jailed Jondallah activists recently returned to Iran by Pakistan. These activists include Abdul-Hamid Rigi, the brother of Jondallah's leader, Abdul-Malek Rigi.
