TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities have arrested the fugitive leader of the country’s main Sunni Muslim insurgent group, Iran’s minister of interior told reporters Tuesday.
Iran accused the United States of having supported the insurgent leader, while his group issued a statement claiming the CIA was involved in his arrest. The United States denied both assertions Tuesday.
“These claims are just plain garbage,” a senior U.S. intelligence official said in Washington.
Abdul Malik Rigi, 27, was captured in an unspecified third country, Iranian Interior Minister Mohammad Najjar said. Iran accuses Rigi of being the mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks that have killed dozens of people.
Rigi, who for years has been Iran’s top fugitive, heads the Jundallah (Soldiers of God, or God’s Brigade) group, which says it supports the rights of a Sunni Muslim minority in Iran and operates in Iran’s southeastern border region.
Iranian authorities say the United States gives financial and organizational support to the group, which often posts al-Qaeda-like execution videos on the Internet.
Iran’s intelligence minister, Heidar Moslehi, accused U.S. authorities of providing Rigi with a false Afghan passport, which he allegedly used to travel to several European countries. In a news conference Tuesday, the minister also showed a photograph that he said proved the insurgent leader spent time on a U.S. military base 24 hours before he was arrested.
“The actions of this individual during his criminal life, which were directed by the intelligence services of America, Britain, European countries and (Israel’s) Mossad, included an attack on a bus, indiscriminate killing of innocent people, blasts in a mosque and similar barbaric actions,” said Moslehi.
However, a website connected to Jundallah asserted Rigi was arrested by the intelligence services of the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan, then handed over to Iran.
The campaign to arrest Rigi had been stepped up in Iran after 42 people, including six Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, died in an October suicide attack. Jundallah claimed responsibility.
