Separatists Claim Attack That Killed Two In Abadan

Radiofarda – Two men on a motorbike were gunned down early Monday morning in Minoo island, close to the city of Abadan, southwest Iran, the Islamic Republic’s official news agency, IRNA, cited “informed sources” as saying.

The two on the motorbike were moving on the coastal road when they were showered by bullets from a passing vehicle, IRNA reported.

One of the persons on the motorbike immediately died at the scene and the other at Abadan’s Taleqani hospital.

Abadan Governor’s office, police and security forces have not yet commented on the deadly incident, IRNA noted.

Meanwhile, a Twitter account claimed to be owned by Harikat an-Nidhal al-Arabi (Arab Struggle Movement) said that the victims were members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and shot by forces of Ahvaz National Resistance. Radio Farda cannot independently verify the claim.

ANR is an Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement which seeks a separate state in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province. It recently claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, the capital city of oil-rich Khuzestan province.

Gunmen disguised as IRGC forces attacked an annual Iranian military parade September 22, in Ahvaz, killing at least 25 people and wounding 53 in the bloodiest assault to strike the country in recent years. The attack in Ahvaz saw gunfire sprayed into a crowd of marching IRGC members, bystanders, while the city’s Friday Prayer Leader and government officials were watching from a nearby stand.

Days after the attack, the Islamic Republic’s Minister of Intelligence, mid-ranking cleric Mahmoud Alavi said that 22 individuals were arrested and charged with the terror attack in Ahvaz.

On Sunday, November 11, exiled Iranian activists and foreign organizations reported that 22 of those arrested after the deadly attack in Ahvaz had been executed on November 8 and their families had been ordered not to hold funerals. Human Rights in Iran (HRI) also reported that the bodies were not handed over to the relatives.

Nevertheless, the governor of Khuzestan Province on November 12, rejected these reports as “utterly false”.