21 April, 2006
Iran has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British, American and Israeli targets if the nation's nuclear sites are attacked, Britain's "Sunday Times" newspaper has reported. The paper says that according to Iranian officials, some 40,000 suicide bombers are ready for deployment. Last month, members of the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard marched in a military parade, dressed in uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high. Meanwhile, volunteers to the suicide force ticked a box stating whether they would prefer to attack Israeli targets or American forces in Iraq. Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group, said a secret, parallel military programmed was under way. The Revolutionary Guards were constructing underground sites that could be activated if Iran's known nuclear facilities were destroyed, the newspaper claims. The NCRI is the political wing of the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq, deemed a terrorist body in UK and US. However, much of its information is considered to be credible by western intelligence sources after Jafarzadeh revealed the existence of the Natanz plant in 2002.
Meanwhile, Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again said that Israel would face destruction. "Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a decaying tree that will be fall in one storm," he said. Referring to threats of a military strike by the West against its newly developed nuclear capacities, Ahmadinejad said at a parade marking Iran's Army Day that the country would "cut off the hand of any aggressor and place the sign of disgrace on their forehead." In another speech, Ahmadinejad pointed out that "We will not hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation (to enrich uranium) and no one has the right to retreat, even one iota", adding: "Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase. We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger."
Israeli statesman Shimon Peres said in response that Ahmadinejad would end up like the deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "Ahmadinejad represents Satan, not God," Peres said. "History has denounced the madmen and those who waved the sword."
Read about the WJC's compaign for international condemnation of President Ahmadinejad