Khuzestan, Victim of Terrorism. A report on 15 terrorist incidents of Takfiris and separatists in Khuzestan province during the last 40 years

This post is also available in: Persian

Whenever these enemies of the people of Khuzestan could not succeed in attracting the attention of people through their mental and cultural activities, they took blind revenge and committed incidents and crimes, some of which we are going to review. The reason why separatists and Takfiris are considered the same is that, it is sometimes difficult to separate the terrorist acts of the two; because their extensive cooperation has sometimes caused incidents to occur at the behest of separatists and Takfiris.

Movements of Al-Ahvaziyah and Takfiri terrorist groups often overlapped and sometimes particularly with separatist approaches. Takfiri thoughts and approaches have been put in operation since the 2010s. Attempts to shut down the Abadan refinery in 1979, repeated explosions of Khuzestan oil pipelines in the early days of the Revolution by separatist terrorists, night shootings, assassination threats, arson and looting, are just some of the terrorist acts of the Al-Ahvaziyah group for creating insecurity in Khuzestan in the first months of the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

 

Armed attack on the people of Khorramshahr

Attempts to capture the city, setting fire to large ships, gas stations and some important centers in June 1979. In those terrorist attacks, 21 people were martyred and 76 more injured. And, thus, this group recorded another crime in their black record by martyring a number of people and the Revolutionary Guards.

Attack on Khorramshahr Grand Mosque

Attack on the people who were sitting in protest of the separatist crimes in the Khorramshahr Grand Mosque on June 20, 1979. The newspaper Jomhuri Eslami writes in the description of this terrorist act: “It was around 4:30 in the morning that the sound of continuous firing of bullets woke up, terrified, the people who had been asleep in the mosque. After a while, the sound of bullets fired at the police department, which had been attacked by terrorists, completely disturbed the situation in the city. The mosque was attacked again with a Molotov cocktail and a machine gun by a white Peykan (car). It is noteworthy that at this moment, several sensitive points of the city, such as warehouses and gas stations and large shops, were set on fire and attacked by terrorists. After a while, the mosque became a gathering place for people who rushed to ask for help.”

Attacks on civilians and civilians, blind assassinations and similar crimes were one of the methods used by the Al-Ahwaziyah group to show its anti-people nature.

Attacks on civilians and non-military people, blind assassinations and similar crimes were among the methods used by the Al-Ahwaziyah group which showed its anti-peopular nature.

Attack on the mourning ceremony of a martyred Revolutionary Guard in Khorramshahr

On July 15, 1979, the attack on the third day of the martyrdom of one of the Revolutionary Guards, by the name of Anoushirvan Rezaei, in the Khorramshahr Grand Mosque, was another crime of the terrorist group called Al-Ahwaziyah, which, of course, led to the end of their sedition in southern Khuzestan. People gathered at the Grand Mosque to attend the martyrdom ceremony, and separatist groups attacked people and worshipers with grenades. Many people were injured and people took to the streets chanting “Allahu Akbar”. Heavy gunfire broke out and the blood of innocent people had covered everywhere. People were shot at from building roofs. As a result of this attack, 7 people were martyred and about 60 people were injured.

Following this tragic incident, the revolutionary and popular institutions intensified, more than ever, their activities to counter the conspiracies and in a coordinated operation, the plans of the separatist groups and their Western and Arab supporters were thwarted; but the terrorist crimes of this separatist group was recorded in the history of the memory of the people of Khuzestan.

 

Shooting at a checkpoint in Ahvaz

On April 15, 2005, two motorcyclists approached the checkpoint and fired at the officers. One police officer and one pedestrian were martyred in the shooting, and two officers and a pedestrian were injured. The Central News Agency of Iran announced the arrest of the attackers on 21 Aril, 2005. In a gathering, a few minutes after the arrests, people in Kut Abdullah, being happy of the news, fired 20 minutes into the sky.

 

The 2005 bombings in Ahvaz

From September to November 2005, the separatist terrorist organization, carried out bombings in Ahvaz Governor’s Office, Management and Planning Organization, Housing and Urban Development Organization, Khuzestan Sugarcane Development Plan Company, Oil Well No.179, two locations of inlet and outlet pipelines leading to Well 179, Abadan Oil Pipelines, General Department of Natural Resources of Khuzestan Province, Saman Bank of Kian Pars Region, Sugarcane Development and Ancillary Industries Company, Abadan and Dezful Governorates.

As a result of those operations, 14 innocent people were martyred and more than 150 people were injured, and huge financial losses were inflicted on public and private places.

 

Bombing October 15, 2005 – Naderi St., Ahvaz

Another crime committed by the group was the October 15 bombing on Naderi Street during the Holy month of Ramadhan, at the busiest time possible, an hour before the Maghrib Adhan, which killed six people and injured more than 100 others. The culmination of the group’s shamelessness was when a sound bomb exploded and the main bomb exploded as people gathered. Among those killed and wounded were many Arab compatriots; the same people who the separatist group claimed to be defending their rights!

The interesting point of the story is that the Website affiliated with the Saudi Al-Arabiya Network has somehow covered the terrorist incident in Ahvaz, revealing its implicit support for terrorist agents. The Saudi network used an “armed attack” instead of a “terrorist incident.”

 

Attack on a police tent in Hamidiyeh

On April 1, 2015, the same terrorist group attacked a police tent in Gambooba Park in Hamidiyeh, killing three police officers and wounding two others. All the perpetrators of this crime were arrested.

 

Terrorist attack on Hosseini mourning procession (Mokeb) in Safiabad, Dezful

Two people were killed and three others were injured in an attack by a terrorist group on a mourning group on the evening of October 15, 2015 in Safiabad, Dezful. Shortly afterwards, the terrorists were arrested and brought to justice.

 

Attack on a police station in Ahvaz

Terrorists attacked the police station 22 in Ahvaz on Monday, May 15, 2017, and martyred two police officers. In less than 48 hours, following the pursuit of the intelligence forces of Hazrat Vali-e-Asr Corps in Khuzestan, the terrorist elements were arrested in a clash, while fleeing the country, and were handed over to the authorities

 

Attack on a seminary in Ahvaz

Night shooting at two seminaries in February 2019. Attack by terrorists affiliated with the Ahwazona satellite network in the middle of the night with their faces covered, shooting with firearms and throwing gasoline bottles at the door of the Imam Hussein seminary in Alavi alley, Ahvaz. No one was injured in the incident. The same thing happened to Al-Ghadir seminary, phase one.

 

Shooting of a police patrol car in Mahshahr

On the morning of Saturday, January 27, 2017, the terrorists targeted the car of patrol police station 13 in Ayatollah Khamenei Boulevard of Bandar Imam Khomeini, with Kalashnikov guns. In this incident, a duty officer by the name of Mohammad Reza Rafiei Nasab was martyred, and Lieutenant Allah Nazar Safari was martyred after being transferred to Haj Marefi Hospital in Mahshahr, due to the severity of his injuries.

Shortly after the terrorists were arrested and during the investigation, they confessed to several blind terrorist operations in Khuzestan province, the martyrdom of two Basijis on November 12, 2018 in Abadan city and the explosion of a gas pressure-reducing station in Khorramshahr with the aim of creating insecurity in the province. A terrorist group called the “Arab Movement for Liberation of Ahvaz” claimed responsibility for this terrorist operation.

 

Assassination of Sheikh Simari, prayers Imam of Alavi neighborhood in Ahvaz

Hojjatoleslam Sheikh “Hisham Simari”, the prayers Imam of Hazrat Fatemeh Al-Zahra (PBUH) Mosque, located in Alavi neighborhood, Ahvaz, was martyred in the evening of June 24, 2007, by being shot by unknown people in front of his house. Hojjatoleslam Sheikh Hisham Simari was one of the pioneers of promoting Islamic culture who did countless activities to promote social interaction and understanding. The anger of the terrorist separatists was aroused and he was finally martyred by them.

 

Assassination of the head of the Islamic Council of Goryeh village, Shushtar city

Seyyed Taher Mousavi, chairman and member of the Islamic Council of Goryeh Village, Shushtar County, was one of the pioneers in serving the people of the region. At night, while resting at home, he was shot, in front of his wife and children, by the terrorist and separatist elements of the terrorist group of the Al-Nidhal Al-Arabi Movement, the military branch of Al-Imran, and was martyred. Then they set fire to a car parked in his house and left the scene. This terrorist act, at that time of night, frightened the victim’s family, and they suffered from distress for a long time.

 

Terrorist attack in the city of Sheiban and the martyrdom of two Basijis

On May 8, 2018, a person, with a terrorist motive, attacked one of the Sheiban urban Basij posts in Bavi town and wounded several people, which led to the martyrdom of two Basijis. In less than ten hours, police arrested the killer and seized several weapons and ammunition.

 

Terrorist attack on Ahvaz parade

On the morning of September 22, 2018, during a parade of the Ahvaz Armed Forces, five armed men entered the compound from behind the base and started shooting at people, soldiers, and officials. In this attack, 23 of our people were martyred, including a 5-year-old child, and 60 were injured. The attack was carried out by ISIS Takfiri elements in coordination with the Al-Ahwaziyeh separatist group and with the support of Saudi and Emirati rulers. The IRGC soon avenged the crime in a Muharram missile strike attacked on ISIS positions, killing a number of ISIS leaders.

 

Who supports the terrorists?

A brief look at the history of Khuzestan province shows that its geopolitical and geostrategic position, fertile soil and…, has always been coveted by colonialists and neighbors. To advance their colonial goals, the intelligence services of these countries, have put on their agenda the objective of disintegration and independence of Khuzestan through creating ethnical and religious differences. They also provided the terrorist elements and separatist organizations, living in their countries, with financial and political support. They have always played a main role in the ethnic and religious crises in this province, indicating their exploitation of potential and actual elements and resident organizations and streamlining by their affiliates inside.

The main and deep common denominator of the Arabs of Khuzestan with the Islamic Republic of Iran is that in addition to being Iranian, they are Shiites and share in religion. On the other hand, this religion is the point of difference with the governments of the Arab countries in the region and the Arab states are not in agreement with the establishment of an independent Arab Shiite state beside them; thus, they presented the solution of religious conversion to the separatist groups.

The obtained facts showed that the extremist nationalists started their move after the end of the imposed war, in order to gain the financial and political support of the Arab states of the region and to establish a Sunni-religious government in Khuzestan province.

Promoting Wahhabism, with the aim of creating a religious rift between the ethnic groups of the province, took form in the seventies, following the other ethnocentric and separatist activities of the hostile Arab groups, which is specifically supported by some intelligence services, especially of the Arab states in the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia and UAE); and its emergence in recent years has been very serious.

Following the events and riots of April 2005, clear facts and documents were found that indicate the extensive intelligence activities of some Arab countries and their support for separatists, with the aim of changing the Shiite school of thought in Khuzestan province, in the years before eruption of the crisis.

“Al-Ahwaziyeh” group is a common name for separatist terrorist groups in Khuzestan, which claim to separate Khuzestan from Iran through armed and terrorist operations. The most famous of these groups include the Al-Nidhal Al-Arabi Movement for Liberation of Ahwaz, the Al-Arabiya Front for Liberation of Ahwaz, and the Al-Arab Movement Party for Liberation of Ahwaz. The members of these groups are based in the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The Wahhabi separatists of Al-Ahwaziyeh also have offices in England and in the city of London. In their leading organization, there is an Iran-British Friendship Association, and with the British-designed scenario, they are trying to dismember parts of Khuzestan, and in this regard, they have started movements in the south of Iran and have created armed conflicts. These separatists, who identify themselves as “Al-Ahwazi”, believe that the Persians have occupied the Ahvaz region since 1925, citing the Arab ethnicism that is being promoted today by Britain and the United States to divide the countries of resistance front; and now they say that the Persians must end the occupation of Ahvaz.

The terrorist branch of this group is called Mohi-ud-Din Al-Nasser Battalions and a Website called “Ahwazna. Net “covers its activities, which have repeatedly published videos of arson by the group’s agents in various branches of banks in Ahvaz and surrounding cities, and has claimed responsibility for them.

The group’s leader, Habib Nebgan, lives in Denmark and is currently in custody on charges of spying for Saudi Arabia.

Most of the members of this group, who are from the Nisi and Nebgan families, live in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

A number of the members of the group, mostly from the Nisi and Nebgan families, have received asylum status in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

According to reports, in the last two decades, more than tens of millions of dollars in cash aid (excluding logistics, equipment, housing, etc.) from the United States, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Australia has been provided to the terrorist groups known as the Al-Ahwazi.

Daniel Burt is a British man with a mysterious and unknown background, who is said to be in charge of and a media guide and propaganda consultant for Al-Ahwazi terrorist groups.

Some of these groups have extensive ties to Israel. Some of their members are known abroad as special agents of the Mossad and CIA, including the “Ahvaz National Democratic Front”.