Iran Claims Arrest of 20 Jeish Al-Adl Members
Iran announced today that twenty members of Jeish Al-Adl have been arrested. The announcement, however, did not say when or where the arrests were made. Further, although the Fars News article announcing the arrests mentions the IRGC several times, it does not indicate whether they or Iranian border guards made the arrests. As you will recall, Jeish Al-Adl has been active in the Sistan and Bolochistan province of Iran and its border with the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Most significantly, an attack they carried out in October, 2013 killed 14 Iranian border guards and exacerbated ongoing border skirmishes between the two countries. Later, Jeish Al-Adl captured five borders guards from Iran and took them to Pakistan. After killing one, the group eventually released the other four.
From the Fars News article:
Iran announced on Tuesday that it has arrested 20 members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jeish al-Adl terrorist group.
“20 members of the Jeish al-Adl terrorist grouplet have been arrested in their hideout,” Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Ali Amiri told reporters in Tehran today.
Amiri, who is also the spokesman of the Interior Ministry, declined to provide any further detail about the exact location or date of the arrests.
Interestingly, after linking the group with al Qaeda in the opening of the article, Fars News goes on to link Sunni Wahhabism at its conclusion:
The terrorists who have reportedly been members of the outlawed Jeish Al-Adl radical Sunni Wahhabi movement fled into Pakistan after the operation in Iran’s Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province.
Because the announcement does not give a date for the arrests (perhaps this note from January 5 is a clue, although it too is nebulous on arrest dates), it seems reasonable to wonder about the timing of announcing them now. The dig at Wahhabism at the end of the article might be seen as a warning to Saudi Arabia not to increase support for exported extremism as a new king takes over.
However, the announcement also comes on the heels of the largest electricity outage that Pakistan has ever experienced. The blackout was triggered by an attack on transmission lines that has been claimed by the Baloch Republican Army, although the poor state of Pakistan’s power grid contributed greatly to the severity of the blackout. This group is distinct from Jeish Al-Adl is one of many groups fighting for an independent Balochistan. The attack on the power lines was about 250 miles from the border with Iran, if I am interpreting the reports and maps properly.
By mentioning the arrests now, Iran is increasing attention on the poor state of security in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Two days after the attack, repairs to the power line have not yet started due to poor security in the region. And now Iran announces that over at the border, a large group of terrorists, presumably using Pakistan as a sometimes harbor, has also been arrested.
I’ll keep an eye out for more developments along this very interesting stretch of border.
I’m curious about something. Ignoring the specific facts of this particular case, is this a story you could have written five years ago? Or ten, or twenty-five? And how about five years out from now, or ten, or twenty-five? What does that say about all this?
Also, is there a size limit for comments? If I have something that’s 800 words (by MS Word count), can I post that?
Thanks.
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This post is part of the ongoing series about incidents along the Iran-Pakistan border, so there are bits that have changed over the five years or so that I’ve been following it.
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As for the long comment, not many of us are likely to wade through something that long in fine detail unless it’s particularly compelling and exactly on topic, but feel free nonetheless.
I’m guessing that CIA/State is making a Ukraine-style move to destabilize Iran and Pakistan, bordering on the Afghanistan the US recently vacated. US: Instability-R’-Us
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Obama and a huge US retinue are now in KSA, and the irrepressible General Dempsey is…guess what….sponsoring an essay competition to honor the deceased Saudi king!
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Pentagon: The king was a lifetime supporter of his country’s alliance with the United States. Abdullah ruled Saudi Arabia from 2005 to his death, and served as regent of the country from 1995. He is succeeded by King Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz.
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“This is an important opportunity to honor the memory of the king, while also fostering scholarly research on the Arab-Muslim world, and I can think of no better home for such an initiative than NDU,” Dempsey said in a statement announcing the competition.
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Of course this is extremely amusing, unless one lives in one of the many countries destabilized by the US and its ally Saudi Arabia.