Friday, 17 March 2006

TWENTY-TWO KILLED AT IRAN BORDER

Published in News Digest

By empty (3/17/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

At least 22 people have been killed by gunmen near Iran\'s border with Afghanistan, official reports say. Many of those killed were government employees and the governor of the provincial capital, Zahedan, was seriously injured in the attack. Police Commander Gen Esmail Ahmadi- Moqaddam said the gunmen posed as police and closed the Zabol to Zahedan road in Sistan-Baluchistan Province.
At least 22 people have been killed by gunmen near Iran\'s border with Afghanistan, official reports say. Many of those killed were government employees and the governor of the provincial capital, Zahedan, was seriously injured in the attack. Police Commander Gen Esmail Ahmadi- Moqaddam said the gunmen posed as police and closed the Zabol to Zahedan road in Sistan-Baluchistan Province. Gen Ahmadi-Moqaddam said US and British intelligence were behind the attack. Correspondents say the Iran-Afghanistan border area is notorious for drug trafficking and kidnappings. But it is not clear whether those responsible have political aims. Speaking to reporters shortly after landing at Zahedan\'s airport on Friday morning, Gen Ahmadi-Moqaddam said the gunmen had closed the Zabol-Zahedan road at around 2100 (1730 GMT) on Thursday night. \"People thought they were Iranian police,\" he said. After killing the civilians the attacks had fled across the border to Afghanistan, he added. Gen Ahmadi-Moqaddam said he had information indicating that US and UK intelligence services had held meetings with the gunmen. \"The said intelligence services had instructed the local bandits on ways of undermining security in the region,\" he said. \"It seems that they are pursuing the same policy that they did in the Iraqi town of Samarra, that is, to provoke fighting between Shias and Sunnis.\" The US and UK have troops stationed in southern Afghanistan as part of a Nato peacekeeping force. (BBC)
Read 1978 times

Visit also

silkroad

AFPC

isdp

turkeyanalyst

Staff Publications

Screen Shot 2023-05-08 at 10.32.15 AMSilk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.


Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.

Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023

Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle,  Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.

2206-StarrSilk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022 

Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.

Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.

Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.  

Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.

Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.

StronguniquecoverBook S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.  

Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.

The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.

Newsletter

Sign up for upcoming events, latest news and articles from the CACI Analyst

Newsletter