Iran kills four 'terrorists': report

23 April 2011 | 13:58 Code : 12106 Latest Headlines

AFP— Four rebels belonging to a "Wahabi terrorist" group have been killed near Sanandaj, capital of the Iranian province bordering Iraq, a top official was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying on Friday.

"The four remaining members of a terrorist group... were killed in armed clashes with security agents in Hasan Abad village near Sanandaj," Iraj Hasanzadeh, a deputy governor general of Kurdistan province, was quoted as saying.

He did not elaborate on the group that he named as Tohid and Jihad.

"Their hideout in the village was reported to us by the people on Thursday, and despite our calls to surrender they declined," Hasanzadeh added. "It seems that they were the last of this Wahabi terrorist group."

Wahabism is a strict form of Sunni Islam practised in Saudi Arabia.

"Three members of this group were apprehended before they could plant bombs in a meeting place of the people and the president," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hasanzadeh said of a provincial trip by the president on April 20.

He said members of the group carried out a string of "deadly terrorist attacks" on clerics, police and forest rangers over two years.

Iranian media have repeatedly reported on clashes between security forces and members of banned Iranian-Kurdish rebel group PJAK, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, in the western Islamic republic operating from bases in neighbouring Iraq and Turkey.

Western Iran has a sizeable Kurdish minority.