Iranian group recruiting thousands of suicide bombers for Iraq and Israel
Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) Mohammed Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Iran-based 'Army of Martyrs', announced that his organisation would soon begin operations in Iraq against US troops in Iraq once training for the more than 20,000 volunteer suicide bombers recruited since June is completed.
The first company named after Yahya Ayyash, a member of the Palestinian group Hamas killed by the Israelis, will begin operating in mid-December "in sympathy with the oppressed people of Fallujah".
Set up by the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, the Army started recruiting terrorists in June of this year. Registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses. Would-be shahids (martyrs) are asked to choose their martyrdom operations: against the occupiers in Iraq, against the occupiers in Jerusalem (i.e. Israel), or towards implementing the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. In 1989, the ayatollah Khomeini had issued a death sentence against British author for writing the Satanic Verses. In 1998, the Iranian government declared it would not support the fatwa but also said only the person who issued the edict could rescind it. Khomeini died in June 1989.
Speaking in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, Samadi said the Army's purpose was to fill the gap "between revolutionary Iranians and other Muslims in other parts of the world, especially those fighting the Israelis in Palestine. He claimed that "30,000 volunteers have signed up at least 4,000 in November, and 20,000 of them have been chosen for training".
Training is held "in open spaces outside cities" but more often inside, away from prying eyes. "Among those recruited," Samadi claims, "there are at least 500 minors, the youngest one being seven years old who joined with eight other members of his family".
Khomeini himself had encouraged young people to volunteer as martyrs (shahids) in the war against Iraq offering their lives clearing minefields for advancing Iranian troops.
"Our targets are mainly the occupying American and British forces in the holy Iraqi cities [Najaf, Karbala, Kufa, among others], all the Zionists in Palestine, and Salman Rushdie," Samadi said. "Volunteers had already carried out suicide operations against military targets inside Israel," he added, but "the U.S. has not really recognised that we have successfully transferred a good method of resistance to other countries".
According to London-based Arabic daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Army of Martyrs was founded on June 4, anniversary of Khomeini's death in Tehran. At the founding there were Zahra Mustafai, Khomeini's great grand daughter, and Sardar Salamati, head of operations for Iran's Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards), who played an important role in the war against Iraq. In the Army's first week, 10,000 people signed up.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said recently that the group's campaign to sign up volunteers for suicide attacks had "nothing to do with the ruling Islamic establishment" adding that if "some people do such a thing [it] is the result of their sentiments. It has nothing to do with the government and the system".
The Army's first meeting was held in the offices of the Martyrs Foundation, a semi-official organisation that helps the families of those killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war or those killed fighting for the government on other fronts. It drew hard-line lawmaker and former Pasdaran member Mahdi Kouchakzadeh.
"At a time when the US is committing the crimes we see now, deprived nations have no weapon other than martyrdom," Kouchakzadeh said. "It's evident that Iran's foreign policy makers have to take the dignified opinions of this group into consideration"
Samadi has denied that the Army of Martyrs has any ties with the Iranian government or al-Qaeda. However, he added that it is a religious obligation for devout Muslims "to defend themselves through all possible means [including] sacrificing life and property." As Khomeini said, "if an enemy invades Muslim countries, [. . .], we don't need anybody's permission to fight an enemy that has occupied Muslim lands". (LF)
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