Iran’s agents arrested in key Iraqi province

Iran Focus: Baghdad, Jun. 13 – Some 50 Iranians along with an Iranian security forces commander have been arrested by Iraq’s security forces in the central province of Diyala, an Iraqi television channel reported. Iran Focus

Baghdad, Jun. 13 – Some 50 Iranians along with an Iranian security forces commander have been arrested by Iraq’s security forces in the central province of Diyala, an Iraqi television channel reported.

The arrests were made during a raid jointly by American and Iraqi forces late Sunday in the town of Baquba, 65 kilometres north of the capital, the Salahuddin television station reported.

Those arrested were believed to be behind a spate of kidnappings and murders in an effort to further strain ethnic tensions in Iraq.

They were arrested in one of the town’s north-eastern districts. Last week, United States forces killed the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi during an air raid in Baquba.

Al-Zarqawi was believed to have maintained close ties with Iran and had fled to there on numerous occasions when U.S. forces were close to tracking him down.

Diyala is also home to several thousand members of Iran’s main opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK). In late May, a bus transporting Iraqi workers from the town of al-Khalis, northeast of Baghdad, to Ashraf City, where the MeK is headquartered, was targeted by a roadside explosive device killing 11 people and wounding 15 others.

The group has accused Iran of masterminding the attack.