200 young Iranians volunteer for suicide missions

Two hundred masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery today to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis.

The ceremony was organised by the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a shadowy group that has since June been seeking volunteers for attacks in Iraq and Israel.

Spokesman Ali Mohammadi described the group as the “first suicide commando unit”, though another official has claimed members already have carried out attacks in Israel.

“Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands,” Mohammadi said.

Iran’s deputy interior minister for security affairs said the movement had no official sanction and said such groups could operate only “as long as their ideas are limited to theory.”

The group, though, has the backing of some prominent hard-line Iranian politicians.

Iran has had no diplomatic ties with the United States since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah. But it says it has no interest in fomenting instability in Iraq and that it tries to block any infiltration into Iraq by insurgents – while pleading that its porous borders are hard to police.

Iran portrays Israel as its main nemesis and backs anti-Israeli groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Wives, husbands and children accompanied volunteers to the cemetery, which was decorated with posters denouncing America and Israel.

“I joined the unit to fulfil my religious task for Palestine,” said a volunteer who gave only his age – 23.

The ceremony included the unveiling of six foot stone column commemorating a 1983 attack on US marine barracks in Lebanon as “the biggest suicide bombing operation against global blasphemy.”

The attack with a truck bomb killed 241 marines.