Iran claims arrest of five men linked to Al-Qaeda

Sep 6, 2011, 14:14 GMT

Tehran - Iran said Tuesday that it has arrested five men in the south-eastern Kerman province who belong to the terrorist network Al-Qaeda, Fars news agency reported.

Three of the men were reportedly Iranians and two of them foreigners, the local police chief said without specifying their nationality.

Kerman police chief Hossein Chenarian told Fars that the five intended to smuggle a large quantity of weapons and explosive devices into the country for acts of sabotage.

Iran has often linked members of bandit groups in southeast Iran to Al-Qaeda networks in neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al-Qaeda itself has however never confirmed these claims.

There have also been no reports yet of nationals of predominantly Shiite Iran becoming members of the strictly Sunni Al-Qaeda network.

Kerman and neighbouring Sistan-Beluchistan provinces are notorious for drug trafficking and kidnapping and used as transit route for transferring drugs to Europe and the Persian Gulf states.

According to United Nations statistics, about 3,700 police officers have been killed in counternarcotics operations and tens of thousands injured over the past three decades.