Iran yesterday seized a Sunni Muslim rebel leader behind a bombing that killed dozens of people last year, and who Tehran says has links to al-Qaeda and support from Pakistan, Britain and the US.
There were contradictory reports about how Iranian security forces detained Jundallah (Soldiers of God) leader Abdolmalek Rigi, whose group claimed the Oct. 18 bombing that killed more than 40 Iranians, including 15 from the elite Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said Rigi had been in a US military base 24 hours before his arrest and was carrying an Afghan passport supplied by the US, state-run Press TV reported.
PHOTO: AFP
Rigi, Iran’s most wanted fugitive, had been tracked by Iranian agents for five months before his arrest, Moslehi said.
The capture was “a great defeat for the US and UK,” Moslehi said at a media conference, accusing the US and Britain of involvement in “continuous plots” in the region.
Moslehi said Rigi had been arrested on board a plane flying between Kyrgyzstan and Dubai.
TV pictures showed him being taken off a plane in handcuffs, accompanied by four masked men.
“Dubai has a smeared hand in this scandal that shows the Zionist regime wants to turn the region into a safe haven for terrorists with the help of America and Europe,” Moslehi was quoted as saying.
The US, Britain and Pakistan all deny backing Jundollah, which operates in Sistan-Baluchistan Province.
Fars news agency had earlier quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar as saying Rigi had been arrested abroad with three other rebels. Some lawmakers said Iranian warplanes might have intercepted Rigi’s aircraft and forced it to land in Iran.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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