20000207

Iran seeks help in ending 'terrorist' attacks

TEHRAN: Iran called on the world community on Sunday to help stop "terrorist acts" by Mujahideen after their deadly mortar attack on the capital.

"The hypocrites resort to blind terrorism against defenceless people," the official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hamidreza Asefi as saying.

"The attack shows the terrorist and inhuman nature of the group and that they have reached a dead end," he said.

The armed Iraqi-based Mujahideen Khalq has claimed responsibility for the attack around the presidential palace late on Saturday, which killed one person and injured six.

The group also claimed to have attacked Iranian military positions in the western provinces of Kermanshah and Ilam, which border Iraq, but there was no official confirmation.

Asefi called for a clear response from the international community.

"We demand a firm, serious and non-selective response from the international community, mainly countries which claim to be fighting terrorism," he said.

Iran, accused by the United States of sponsoring international terrorism, often criticises the West for what it calls double standards on the issue, citing its support of Israel.

The afternoon daily Kayhan quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying they discovered the spot from which the mortars were fired, less than one km south of the presidential palace.

GUARDS ON ALERT

The Guards also said they had gone on alert in parts of the capital to protect against any further incidents.

Government spokesman Ataollah Mohajerani, who is also the culture minister, dismissed the attack. "It was worthless from a military point of view. It was more to prove themselves," he told a news conference.

The Mujahideen often claim responsibility for cross-border attacks and explosions in Iran.

The rebel group has said the latest attack was directed at the office of Iran's supreme clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other nearby office buildings.

However, witnesses said most of the injured were passers-by near the gates to the presidential palace. They described at least five explosions as mortar shells.

President Khatami was in his office at the time of the attack but he escaped unhurt, an aide to the Khatami family told Reuters.

State radio said six rounds of mortar bombs had been fired, four of which hit the courtyard of the Expediency Council, a top state body chaired by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The two others struck an administrative office and a printing works near the presidency, where the victim died.

The radio said two people injured in the assault had been released from hospital.

Tehran denounced the attack as a criminal act designed to disrupt the 21st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, to be formally commemorated later this week, and this month's parliamentary polls.-Reuters