Iran arrest eight 'terrorists'

TEHRAN: Iranian security forces on Thursday arrested eight persons allegedly involved in killing and injuring several people a week ago in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the state television's website reported.

"Eight members of the Khalq-e Arab terrorist group were apprehended early this morning in a joint operation by the police and intelligence agents," a top police commander in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, Abdollah Nazarpour, was quoted as saying on the website.

He added that the arrested people "were involved in killing three people in Ahvaz", the capital of Khuzestan, including a "police officer shot dead by two motorcyclists on April 15 near a checkpoint."

Nazarpour's comment is the first report of such an incident, and no additional information on the arrested people was provided.

Iranian media have previously reported that members of this group, whose composition is unknown, were involved in deadly blasts in Ahvaz in 2005 and 2006.

The province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq and the Gulf, has a sizeable Arab minority and was also rocked by ethnic violence in April 2005.

The Islamic republic regularly blames US and British agents in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan for launching attacks on its border provinces, which harbour significant ethnic minority populations.