Volatile Sistan-Baluchistan Region Is Base for Insurgents

By CHIP CUMMINS

Sunni insurgency in Sistan-Baluchistan has presented Tehran with one of its most vexing domestic security problems. The region, which is located in Iran's southeast corner, borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and is one of the largest and poorest of Iran's 30 provinces.

Sistan-Baluchistan is home to a large concentration of Sunni Muslims. Ethnic Baluchi tribes are prevalent in the region, which straddles all three countries. The province's border areas are considered key smuggling routes for products including opium.

Increasingly, Tehran has grown worried about the influence of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan on criminal and militant groups operating on the Iranian side of the border.

Apart from its drugs trade and lawlessness, the region is seen by Tehran as a top security priority because of Pakistan's close ties to Iranian arch-nemesis Saudi Arabia. The two Muslim powerhouses have backed rival proxies across the Middle East. Tehran has long suspected Saudi Arabia of backing Sunni insurgents, such as Jundallah -- the group Iran blamed for Sunday's attacks.

Saudi Arabia has denied those accusations. A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said Sunday that Islamabad was looking into the attack, but said it wasn't planned from Pakistan.

The region's volatility and proximity to insurgency-plagued Afghanistan and Pakistan has forced Tehran to walk a fine line. Iranian security officials have cracked down hard on Jundallah and other groups to maintain order. But they have tempered their response to attacks for fear of inciting more violence and perhaps drawing in fighters from across the border.

Jundallah, or "the Army of God," is a murky Sunni Baluchi militant group that has for years waged what constitutes a low-level insurgency against the Iranian regime. It claims Tehran has oppressed the region's Sunni population.

The militant group began an armed campaign against Tehran earlier this decade under the shadowy leadership of Abdolmalek Rigi. Attacks have grown more sophisticated over the years. In February 2007, a bus bombing claimed by Jundallah killed 11 civilian employees of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Guard took over primary security responsibility for Sistan-Baluchistan earlier this year.

"The Revolutionary Guard has for the past year intensified its presence in Zahedan [capital of the province of Sistan and Baluchistan] to counter drug crimes and border control between Iran and Afghanistan," said Ali Alfoneh, an expert on Revolutionary Guards at the American Enterprise Institute. "For the past year there has been a series of attacks against border patrol, police, regular army and the Revolutionary Guards in that region, and the central government had to do something, so the Revolutionary Guards were sent in."

Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Jundallah's leader, is behind bars on death row. In a carefully choreographed confession in the summer, he said the group received funding and orders from Washington, a charge the U.S. denies.

Despite the various attacks the group has either claimed or been blamed for, Jundallah has never posed a significant threat to the regime. Sunday's bombings represent its highest-profile attack to date.

-Farnaz Fassihi contributed to this article.