Iran announces capture of militant group leader (Claims working with Americans)

[n2doc]

By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 23, 2010 | 2:17 a.m.

Reporting from Beirut and Tehran - Iran's security forces said they captured the head of an ethnic militant group they have fought for years Tuesday morning and claimed he was at an American base in Afghanistan a day before he was caught.

Abdulmalak Rigi, the infamous leader of the ethnic Baluch militant group Jundallah, and his second-in-command are in Iranian custody after what the Ministry of Intelligence and Security is touting as a five-month operation.

"We had spread a dragnet and we managed to capture him," said Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, according to state radio. "He is now in the claws of justice. We were watching him and his agents, but we wanted to capture him alive."

Iran has long claimed that Jundallah was backed by the United States as part of an ongoing proxy war meant to pressure the Islamic Republic. Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi showed a photo of Abdulmalak Rigi on state television and said it was taken at the "headquarters of Americans in Afghanistan" 24 hours before his capture. Moslehi also showed an identity card and passport purporting to belong to Rigi that he said were issued by the U.S.

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