Iran and its Nukes
Sunday Times: 40,000 Iran suicide bombers ready to hit US, UK targets
By Associated Press April 16, 2006
Protesters call for eradication of Israel (AP file)
Tehran has trained suicide bombers to attack British and American targets if Iran's nuclear sites are attacked, a newspaper reported Sunday. The main force -- the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards -- was first seen in Iran last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high, The Sunday Times said. Dr. Hassan Abbasi, head of Iran's Center for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 Western targets had been identified.
"We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points, if they attack Iran's nuclear facilities," The Sunday Times quoted Abbasi as saying in a tape recording of the speech the paper said it had obtained. He said some sites were "quite close" to Iran's border with Iraq.
Abbasi warned the would-be martyrs to "pay close attention to wily England" and vowed that "Britain's demise is on our agenda," The Sunday Times reported. The paper quoted unidentified Iranian officials as saying 40,000 Iranian suicide bombers have been trained and are ready for action. At a recruiting station in Tehran recently, volunteers for the suicide force had to show their birth certificates, give proof of their address and mark a box stating whether they would prefer to attack American targets in Iraq or Israeli targets, the paper said.
On Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm." Last year, he said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and questioned whether the Holocaust actually happened. Last week, Ahmadinejad said Iran has successfully enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward the large-scale production of a material that could be used to fuel nuclear reactors for generating electricity, or to build atomic bombs. Iran insists it is interested only in the peaceful use of nuclear power, but the United States and other nations suspect the regime wants to develop weapons and are demanding a halt to enrichment activities.
Since his announcement, Ahmadinejad has been even more defiant in defending his country's decision to press ahead with its nuclear program over the U.N. Security Council's objections. The Sunday Times said that according to Western intelligence documents it has obtained, Iran's Revolutionary Guards are in charge of a secret nuclear weapons program designed to evade the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency. The paper said that according to one of the leaked reports, dated February, U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to attack Iran.
"If the problem is not resolved in some way, he intends to act before leaving office because it would be unfair to leave the task of destroying Iran's nuclear facilities to a new president," The Sunday Times quoted the document as saying. U.S. media reports have said the Bush administration was considering a military attack on Iran over its nuclear program, but Bush has dismissed those reports as "wild speculation."
