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An Iranian child wearing a headband with the inscription "There is no God but Allah" attends a suicide bomber registration meeting in Tehran (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners April 21, 2005 |
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More than 400 men, women, and children gathered at a meeting in Tehran on Wednesday to pledge their commitment to carry out suicide bomb attacks against both Israelis and Americans in Iraq.
"Some 440 volunteers, most of them women, signed up today," said Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesperson for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, which organized the meeting.
According to Samadi, members of his group -- which has sought volunteers for attaks in Iraq and Israel since last June -- have already carried out suicide attacks inside Israel against Israeli military targets. He added that "a few" of his fighters had been killed in the attacks, but his claims could not be confirmed since the group is not among those which have claimed responsibility for suicide bombings inside Israel.
He added that several thousand have already been selected for training.
Each of the group's 400-plus new recruits -- some of whom donned headbands with the inscription 'there is no God but Allah' -- were confronted with a difficult choice: to train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq; to train for suicide attacks against Israelis; or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie, the author forced into hiding after the late Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him.
The ceremony, which included the showcase of video footage depicting Israeli soldiers being killed in suicide attacks, was attended by the distinguished Mahdi Rahimian, head of the Martyr's Foundation and the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, both quasi-governmental organizations run by hard-liners loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran's hard-line rulers have long called for the destruction of Israel. This may be one reason why Iranians are barred from traveling to Israel. "You can't travel there with an Iranian passport," said Samadi. "Our suicide bombers enter the occupied Palestine in other ways."
Samadi said his group saw "no limits" to carrying out suicide operations in Israel, but refused to discuss details because "revelation of our activities will create tremendous problems for Iran's foreign policy." He was even more reluctant to discuss his group's planned operations in Iraq.
A representative of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, who called himself Abu Osameh, praised the Iranian group for its activities.
The AP contributed to this report.
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