Ansar Al-Furqan Group Claims Attack against IRGC HQ in Iran

The gate of a police headquarters after a suicide car bombing in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on December 6. (AP)
The gate of a police headquarters after a suicide car bombing in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on December 6. (AP)
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Ansar Al-Furqan Group Claims Attack against IRGC HQ in Iran

The gate of a police headquarters after a suicide car bombing in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on December 6. (AP)
The gate of a police headquarters after a suicide car bombing in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on December 6. (AP)

The Ansar Al-Furqan group, known for its opposition to the Iranian regime, claimed responsibility for the attack against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards headquarters in the southeastern port city of Chabahar on Thursday.

It confirmed that it targeted the IRGC in the city where India was developing a port to compete with Pakistan’s Gwadar Port that is being developed by Chinese companies.

In a statement Friday, Ansar Al-Furqan said that its members used a booby-trapped Nissan type van to target a military headquarters in Chabahar.

The vehicle was detonated at the entrance of the facility after the driver failed to breach the security measures taken by the IRGC.

The Guards had upped their security after coming under repeated attacks by the Jaish al-Adl group.

Tehran said that two officers were killed and 41 people were wounded in the attack. Ten are in critical condition.

Meanwhile, Iranian figures living outside the country refuted government claims that women and children were present at the site of the bombing, saying that the target was a military base.

It said that the government made such allegations to rally the people’s support after they had grown disgruntled by its security, economic and political policies.

The IRGC had blamed regional powers of being behind the bombing in an attempt to avoid acknowledging the existence of groups that are opposed to the regime within Iranian territory.

Dr. Nour Jomaa, who has Baloch roots, said that the operation reflects the anger harbored by the minority against the government.

He explained that Tehran had expelled thousands of Baloch families from Chabahar and brought in Persian ones instead in an effort to alter the demographics of the area and impose its complete control over it.

He revealed that anti-regime Baloch movements have recently intensified their operations against Tehran in an attempt to deter it from carrying out its plan to expel and marginalize the Baloch from their ancestral regions.

Moreover, Jomaa said that Iranian authorities were naturalizing Shiite Afghan fighters in the city as a reward for their fighting in Syria and Iraq and for executing Tehran’s policies in Afghanistan.



Trump Says Israeli Strike on Iran Could Happen

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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Trump Says Israeli Strike on Iran Could Happen

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he is still urging Iran to negotiate a nuclear deal, but that he is concerned a “massive conflict” could occur in the Middle East if it does not.

“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter about a potential Israeli attack. "Look, it’s very simple, not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump offered guarded optimism that a conflict could still be avoided, and said he's urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off from taking action for the time-being.

“As long as I think there is a (chance for an) agreement, I don’t want them going in because I think it would blow it," Trump stated.

Trump said he felt it was necessary for his administration on Wednesday to direct a voluntary evacuation of nonessential personnel and their families from some US diplomatic outposts in the Middle East.

“We have a lot of American people in this area. And I said, we got to tell them to get out because something could happen soon,” Trump said. "And I don’t want to be the one that didn’t give any warning, and missiles are flying into their buildings. It’s possible. So I had to do it."

Iran said it has built and will activate a third nuclear enrichment facility, ratcheting up tensions with the UN on Thursday immediately after its atomic watchdog agency censured Iran for failing to comply with nonproliferation obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

“Iran has no choice but to respond to this political resolution,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Atomic Energy Organization said in a joint statement.

The censure by the International Atomic Energy Agency, its first in 20 years over Iranian non-compliance, could set in motion an effort to restore sanctions on Iran later this year.

Trump had previously warned that Israel or America could launch airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiators failed to reach a deal on Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.

A sixth round of Iran-US talks is scheduled to begin Sunday in Oman.