Iran executes 11 Jundullah Sunni fighters

Iran has executed 11 members of the Jundullah Sunni-Muslim armed group, which claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on a Shia mosque which killed 39 people. Iran accuses Washington of backing the movement, a claim backed up  by US media reports.

Reuters

Some of the hanged men were involved in two mosque bombings in the south-eastern city in Zahedan and attacks on revolutionary guards, according to local justice officials.

They were found guilty of "corruption on earth, fighting against God and the Prophet Mohammad and countering the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran" and hanged in the jail in Zahedan, the capital of the eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Jundullah claimed responsibility for the 15 December attack in the south-eastern town of Chabahar, the most deadly attack on a Shia mosque in Iran since 1994, saying that it was revenge for the execution of its leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, in June.

The group has carried out numerous attacks over the past 10 years in Sistan-Baluchestan, which is on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and has a large Sunni minority.

Before his death Rigi confessed to links with the US, according to prosecutors. Tehran has often accused Washington of backing Jundullah, along with Pakistani intelligence, a claim which investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and ABC News have backed up.

The US condemned the Chahabar attack and added Jundullah to its list of foreign terrorist organisations last month.