Guard says terror response not limited to Iran borders

LONDON, Feb 14, (Agencies): A senior Revolutionary Guards commander said on Wednesday that Iran response to a suicide attack that killed 27 soldiers in southeastern region will not be limited to Iranian borders.

Iranian authorities say the Sunni group Jaish al Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack, operate from safe havens in Pakistan and have repeatedly called on the neighbouring country to crack down on them.

Reacting to the suicide attack in Sistan-Baluchistan province, Revolutionary Guards commander Ali Fadavi was quoted as saying by Fars news agency “our response in defence of the Islamic Revolution will not be limited to our borders... The enemies will receive a very firm response from the Revolutionary Guards like before.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sent condolences to the families of the victims of the suicide car bombing.

Khamenei’s letter, published on his website, Khamenei.ir, claimed the perpetrators had links to spy organizations of countries in the region and beyond.

President Hasan Rouhani asserted that the US and Zionism are at the root of “terrorism in the region” and urged neighboring countries to help “stop terrorist attacks.”

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal said Pakistanis were “shocked and grieved.”

The European Union, meanwhile, condemned the “terror attack” on Iranian armed forces in Sistan-Baluchestan province in Iran.

“There can be no justification for such an outrageous act of terror. The European Union expresses its condolences to the families of the victims and to the people of Iran; we wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” said Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, in a statement.

The former US Air Force intelligence analyst, her brown hair now hidden underneath a mandatory hijab, stood before an Iranian ayatollah as a television camera filmed behind her.

It was 2012 and Monica Elfriede Witt offered Ayatollah Hadi Barikbin the pledge of faith all Islam converts must recite: “There is no God but God and Muhammad is His messenger.”

Yet amid congratulations for her conversion, Witt – who once held a top secret security clearance – allegedly had a dark secret: She was being recruited by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to betray her country, according to federal prosecutors.