 Two Iranian border guards were killed and three wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack launched by alcohol bootleggers on the Iran-Iraq border, local media reported.| Do alk runners usually carry RPGs? |
"Two soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack at the border post of Chaku," on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan in the west of the country, the conservative Kayhan daily reported. According to Kayhan, the attack followed a tightening of security at the border aimed at thwarting bootleggers coming from Iraq. The paper said that more than 1.15 mln bottles of liquor had been seized in West Azerbaijan province, which abuts both Iraq and Turkey, in the four months from March, more than in all of last year. The manufacture and consumption of alcohol has been prohibited in Iran since the Islamic revolution of 1979 and remains punishable by fines and lashes.On July 5, Iran's conservative-controlled parliament adopted a bill doubling sentences for alcohol manufacturers and smugglers. According to the bill, alcohol manufacturers or sellers are subject to between three and 12 months in prison along with 74 lashes and a fine equivalent to twice the value of the alcohol seized. The law remains unchanged for consumers: two to six months in prison plus lashes.Three Iranian soldiers were killed in an ambush near the Turkish border that the Interior Ministry blamed on Turkish Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). "Three soldiers were martyred," Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said of Tuesday evening's ambush near the northwestern town of Oshnoviyeh, according to AFP. "It was terrorists from the PKK who carried out the ambush." The spokesman gave no further details of the attack and did not elaborate on why the PKK was held responsible rather than the Iran-oriented Kurdish rebel groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran and Komaleh. |