Head of Us-based Iran dissident group held over ‘terror’ bomb

IRAN says it has detained the leader of a California-based militant group that is accused of being behind a deadly attack on a mosque in 2008.

Iran’s intelligence ministry claims Jamshid Sharmahd is the head of “Tondor”, the militant wing of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, an opposition monarchist group based in the US.

It is not clear how the Californiabased 65-year-old, who Iran claims directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from the US, was arrested.

The 2008 bombing killed 14 people and wounded more than 200. The intelligence ministry called his arrest a “complex operation” and published a photo on their website of a blindfolded man they say is Mr Sharmahd.

The US State Department said Mr Shamahd had previously been targeted for assassination. An alleged Iranian government operative, who was said to have hired a hitman to kill Mr Sharmahd, was due to face trial in California but disappeared in 2010, likely having returned to Iran.

“The Iranian regime has a long history of detaining Iranians and foreign nationals on spurious charges,” the State Department said in a statement. We urge Iran to be fully transparent and abide by all international legal standards.”

The intelligence ministry did not say what charges Mr Shamahd would face.

Iran hanged three men convicted of the same bombing in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, saying they had ties to the monarchist exile group.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Abbis Mousavi, criticised the United States for letting Mr Shamahd stay. It “must be responsible for supporting terrorist groups which are inside this country and carry out and lead terrorist acts against the Iranian people,” state television quoted him saying.