Word: jundallah
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Iran is gloating now that it has seized its public enemy No. 1. On Feb. 22, Iranian agents allegedly intercepted Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of Jundallah, a Sunni extremist group that has waged a low-level war against Tehran for the better part of a decade, killing hundreds. According to state media, Rigi, 27, was on a flight bound for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from Dubai when the Iranians forced the plane to land at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. A day later, Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi hailed Rigi's arrest as proof of "the power of the Islamic Republic...
Iranian officials accused the U.S., Britain and Pakistan of helping to orchestrate a suicide bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province Oct. 18 that killed 42 people, including commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, the nation's élite military unit. Though the Sunni rebel group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack--Iran's deadliest in nearly two decades--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the foreign powers for funding the majority-Shi'ite country's insurgency in order to destabilize its borders. All three nations denied involvement...
...have been susceptible to outside influences, but rarely have they felt strong enough to take on Tehran - which fears that that could change with the chaos at its borders. If, for instance, the U.S. were to suddenly pick up and leave Afghanistan, would the new Taliban government resist backing Jundallah? Or if Pakistan fails to subdue the tribal areas and its own Taliban, would this encourage Jundallah...
American intelligence has also had contact with Jundallah. But that contact, as Iran almost certainly knows, was confined to intelligence-gathering on the country; a relationship with Jundallah was never formalized, and contact was sporadic. I've been told that the Bush Administration at one point considered Jundallah as a piece in a covert-action campaign against Iran, but the idea was quickly dropped because Jundallah was judged uncontrollable and too close to al-Qaeda. There was no way to be certain that Jundallah would not throw the bombs we paid for back at us. (See TIME's photo-essay...
...without a failure in Pakistan or Afghanistan. The five senior Revolutionary Guards officers killed on Sunday were on their way to a meeting with local tribal chiefs to talk about containing Shi'ite-Sunni violence in their province, and the agenda no doubt included what to do about Jundallah...