Five 'commandos' die in attempt to kill Rafsanjani

At least five commandos belonging to a special unit of an underground organisation opposed to the Islamic regime of Iran were killed and three others wounded and captured in a failed attempt to kill President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, according to a communique issued by the organisation.

An ambush was laid at 11.40pm on Wednesday, the eve of the 14th commemoration of the Islamic revolution, at a crossroads in the north-west area of Tehran, it said.

The attackers opened fire with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades on the motorcade escorting President Rafsanjani's bullet-proof car. After 20 minutes, fighting between the eight assailants and the presidential guards spread to adjacent roads and ended after five of the attackers were killed and three others captured, according to the communique. No casualty figure was given for the presidential guards.

The Babak Khorramdin organisation has claimed to have made several attacks on the Pasdaran (the mullahs' praetorian guard) as well as on official motorcades, and its claims have so far been confirmed in one way or another by the local press. But this was the first time that one of its units was said to have ambushed the President's motorcade.

The name of the organisation is derived from one of the first Iranians to resist the Islamic presence after the Arab invasion brought Islam 1,400 years ago.

What is interesting is the presence of at least five officers, including two Revolutionary Guards, in the commando. Also surprising was the accuracy of the information about the President's movements and whereabouts, details which are usually kept ultra- secret.

The attack on President Rafsanjani came at the time that the ruling clerics were insisting that their Islamic regime was unshakeable and unremovable. 'See this sea of 30 million people and learn what you have to learn about our popularity among our Islam- loving Muslim people,' President Rafsanjani told the crowd on Thursday in Freedom Square in Tehran in celebrating the 14th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Iran's population is about 60 milllion.

In Tehran yesterday, the Chief Justice, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, said during Friday prayers that the human rights organisation Amnesty International was invited to visit Iran for the first time since 1979.

'Amnesty International wishes to normalise its relations with Iran and has told us it was only interested in defending human rights, outside of political considerations,' he said.

'Come see for yourselves, up close,' he said in an open invitation to Amnesty.

In London, Amnesty International confirmed it had been in contact with Iran for many years, seeking permission for a visit. It was still awaiting an official invitation, with dates.