Iran arrest two suspected al-Qaida members

Iran said last night it had detained two suspected al-Qaida members who entered the country illegally from Iraq, state television reported.

“Two suspected al-Qaida operatives were arrested after entering Ilam province from Iraq,” the television reported, adding that they were being interrogated.

Iran says it has made a significant contribution to the global campaign against terrorism by detaining agents of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, but the United States accuses the Tehran government of harbouring al-Qaida fugitives.

Iran says it has repatriated more than 500 suspected al-Qaida operatives, most of them Saudis.

It has also said that some al-Qaida suspects would stand trial in Iranian courts for offences committed in Iran, but no reports of such trials have emerged.

US counterterrorism officials have said a handful of senior al-Qaida operatives who fled to Iran after the war in Afghanistan in 2001 may have developed a working relationship with a secretive military unit linked to Iran’s religious hard-liners.

Iran has rejected the charges.