Iran vows reprisals after bombing kills dozens

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran vowed retaliation Monday after accusing Pakistan, the U.S. and Britain of aiding Sunni militants who stunned the Islamic regime with a suicide bombing that killed top Revolutionary Guard commanders and dozens of others.

A commentary by the official news agency called on Iranian security forces "to seriously deal with Pakistan once and for all." And President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Pakistani counterpart that his nation must hunt down suspected members of Jundallah, or Soldiers of God.

"The presence of terrorist elements in Pakistan is not justifiable and the Pakistani government needs to help arrest and punish the criminals as soon as possible," state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as telling President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday.

Iran made no specific threats against the U.S. or Britain, but the accusations came as talks began in Vienna over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. is part of those talks, which observers said made little headway Monday beyond spelling out each side's position.

Iran has often claimed that Western powers use groups such as Jundallah to try to destabilize the country. But the direct finger-pointing at Pakistan - and the warnings of a stepped-up offensive - present a different and risky scenario for Iran's leaders.

Sunday's attack occurred in a region that is home to several minority Sunni tribes in rugged southeastern Iran. It is one of the country's most restive areas. Until now, authorities have avoided widespread security offensives that could draw in outside extremists such as al-Qaida.

Sharper tensions with Pakistan could severely hurt Iran's efforts to battle drug trafficking and jeopardize i! mportant trade deals at a time when Tehran could face more sanctions over its nuclear program. In May, the two countries signed a landmark pact for a natural gas pipeline into Pakistan.

Pakistan's president quickly condemned the attack that killed at least 42 people - including five senior Revolutionary Guard officers - in a district near Iran's border with Pakistan. The dry canyons and hills are crisscrossed by smuggling routes and home to Sunni Muslim ethnic groups known as Baluchi.

Jundallah gained notice more than five years ago with sporadic attacks and kidnappings, claiming the minority Sunni tribes in southeastern Iran suffer at the hands of Iran's Shiite leadership. Its leader, Abdulmalik Rigi, has been quoted as saying the group does not seek to break from Iran but that violence is necessary to draw attention to discrimination.

Most experts estimate Jundallah has no more than 1,000 main fighters from Baluchi clans, whose territory extends into Pakistan and Afghanistan. Iran has claimed the group has ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban, but most analysts say no evidence has been produced.

Jundallah has targeted the powerful Revolutionary Guard before, including a February 2007 car bombing that killed 11 members. The group also claimed responsibility for a May suicide bomb that killed 25 worshippers in a Shiite mosque.

Sunday's blast was the most deadly. Reports said a suicide bomber ambushed a high-level delegation of Guard commanders arriving for talks on promoting Sunni-Shiite reconciliation with tribal leaders in Pishin near the Pakstani border.

Revolutionary Guard chief Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari vowed to deliver a "crushing" response and said an Iranian delegation would travel to Pakistan soon to present evidence of links to its agents.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement on his official Web site v! owing to punish those behind the attack.

Several analysts who have studied Jundallah say the group likely receives inspiration and material support from Baluchi nationalists in Pakistan, but no direct backing from militant factions.

"Evidence shows that U.S., British and Pakistani intelligence supported the group," state TV quoted Jafari as saying.

The State Department and Britain's Foreign Office strongly rejected claims of any involvement.

Zardari called the incident "gruesome and barbaric" and pledged full Pakistani support to fight the militants, according to a statement from his office.

Peiman Forouzesh, an Iranian lawmaker representing the region where the attack took place, called on the Guard to carry out military operations inside the Pakistani soil against Jundallah.

A statement in the name of Jundallah said the attack was carried out in "retaliation for the Iranian regime's crimes against the unarmed people of Baluchistan."

The victims of the attack included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground forces, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The others killed were Guard members or tribal leaders.

---

Associated Press Writers Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Sebastian Abbot and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. Murphy reported from Dubai.

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Afghan president's rival accepts Nov. 7 runoff

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KABUL (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai's arch political rival agreed Wednesday to booty allotment in the Nov. 7 runoff election, cementing the stage for a high-stakes showdown in the face of Taliban threats and approaching winter snows.

Ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah made his animadversion to reporters one day after Karzai bowed to intense U.S. and all-embracing pressure and accustomed findings of a U.N.-backed panel that there had been massive artifice on his behalf in the Aug. 20 vote. Those findings showed Karzai bootless to win the 50 percent appropriate to avoid a runoff.

As allotment of efforts to avert cheating in the upcoming ballot, acclamation admiral acquire accursed 200 commune acclamation chiefs following complaints by candidates or observers about misconduct in their regions, the U.N. said aftermost week. It was not immediately known how many posts in absolute there were.

The country's electoral crisis has comes as the Washington debates its way forward in a war that entered its ninth year this month.

Holding the second annular of polling as Afghanistan enters its winter season poses serious challenges, both for cartoon voters and distributing ballots nationwide, which the U.N. said would begin Thursday. Abdullah said U.S. and Afghan forces also charge provide security to prevent a repeat of a beachcomber of Taliban attacks in August that dead dozens. In some areas, militants cut off the ink-marked fingers of bodies who had voted.

Voters "are demography a risk in some parts of the country and they should be assured that that risk is worthwhile," said Abdullah, who said he called Karzai to acknowledge him for agreeing to hold the second-round! . "I wou ld like to see that our bodies are accommodating after an environment and atmosphere of fear and intimidation."

But he conceded security was far from perfect. "There are some circumstances that we cannot change in the coming 15 days, like areas which Taliban can abuse the people," Abdullah said.

Abdullah's acknowledgment sets the stage for an acclamation that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said would be a "huge challenge" to pull off after repeating the boundless artifice that marred the first-round balloting. The world anatomy has set aside added than $20 million to support the poll, according to the U.N. spokesman in Kabul, Aleem Siddique.

Finding replacements for acclamation workers implicated in artifice will be difficult. The government had to clutter this summer to recruit enough acclamation admiral and poll workers, abnormally at voting stations for women. It's unclear if they would be able to fill accessible posts with better-qualified people.

"It is hard to see how a second annular can be aboveboard unless women's security and access to the polls is dramatically improved," said Rachel Reid, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Kabul.

The Independent Election Commission, the Afghan anatomy that runs elections, charge also agree the account of polling stations. Much of the artifice in the August balloting came through ballots that arrived from alleged "ghost polling stations" that never opened because they were in alarming areas.

But closing the ambiguous stations would prevent voters in those areas from casting ballots. Kai Eide, the U.N. arch in Afghanistan, has said he worked to accessible the stations to avoid disenfranchising voters.

Abdullah said Wednesday that he is preparing a account of conditions that his aggregation wants acclamation organizers to commit to in order to acquire a fair vote. He said he ! would be accessible to negotiating the conditions, but would not acquire an acclamation organized on the aforementioned terms as the August vote.

"I will be flexible, but I will be serious about this because, after all, it is the accuracy and candor of the elections which will decide the outcome," he said.

Karzai's capitulation Tuesday was a relief to the Obama administration, which hopes the troubled nation has taken one footfall afterpiece toward a credible, accepted government necessary to win public support in the U.S. for the war and reverse Taliban gains. The U.S. military appear one of its troops was dead in a bomb attack in the south Tuesday, bringing the absolute number of Americans dead in October to 30.

Karzai announced the accommodation Tuesday after a day of intensive talks with U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Later, in a blast interview from Dubai with The Associated Press, Kerry declared the evolution in Karzai's thinking.

"President Karzai really deeply believes he had won the acclamation and ... that the all-embracing community was affectionate of conspiring to push for a different outcome," Kerry said. "He had bodies aural his government, bodies aural the acclamation agency who felt they were being insulted about putting together a faulty acclamation process."

"There were a lot of very abysmal feelings about Afghanistan's appropriate to run its election, its competency in active it," Kerry said.

--

Associated Press Writer Todd Pitman contributed to this report.

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Pakistan cuts deal with anti-American militants

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DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's army, in the midst of a above new abhorrent adjoin Taliban militants, has addled deals to accumulate two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle adjoin the government, admiral said Monday.

The deals increase the affairs of an army victory adjoin Pakistan's enemy No. 1, but announce that the 3-day-old advance into the Taliban's strongholds in South Waziristan may accept beneath aftereffect than the U.S. wants on a spreading affront beyond the border in Afghanistan.

Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the accepted fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They will additionally acquiesce the army to move through their own acreage unimpeded, giving the aggressive additional fronts from which to advance the Taliban.

In exchange, the army will affluence patrols and bombings in the acreage controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence admiral based in the arena told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because absolute their identities would accommodation their work.

An army spokesman described the deal as an "understanding" with the men that they would stay neutral. The agreements underscore Pakistan's past practice of targeting alone active groups that advance the government or its armament central Pakistan.

Western admiral say South Waziristan is additionally a above sanctuary and training ground for al-Qaida operatives. The mountain-studded arena has been under near-total active control for years and is advised a likely ambuscade place for Osama bin Laden.

The United States has responded cautiously to the antecedent Pakistani strategy, about welcoming the abhorrent but adage little about the specific best of targets.

"We accept a shared ambition here, and the shared ambition is angry violent extremism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday.

Kelly said he was blind of an agreement to accumulate some active factions out of the fight for now, but other U.S. admiral said the strategy is not surprising or necessarily worrisome.

Because the band loyal to Taliban baton Hakimullah Mehsud poses the best absolute threat to the Pakistani government and army, it is the logical aboriginal target, U.S. admiral briefed on the abhorrent said.

While a broad abhorrent that takes on all comers at once might be ideal, it is not practical, U.S. aggressive admiral said. They batten on condition of anonymity because the United States has no absolute role in the operations of another country.

U.S. admiral are watching the abhorrent closely with the hope that the Pakistani army will not cull aback afterwards the antecedent onslaught, and will eventually widen the abhorrent to cover other active factions and the added forbidding ground of North Waziristan.

The army's abhorrent in South Waziristan is pitting some 30,000 troops adjoin 11,500 militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella grouping of the country's main active factions blamed for 80 percent of the attacks in this nuclear-armed nation over the last three years.

The Taliban accept claimed responsibility for a billow in strikes over the past two weeks that has dead added than 170 people. The attacks accept included a 22-hour siege of the army headquarters and a bombing of the U.N. architecture in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani security analysts said the army had little best but to c! ut deals with rival Taliban factions to accept a chance of success. The attack will likely be far tougher than in the Swat Valley, a northwest arena where government troops overpowered insurgents this year. The army has conducted three antecedent offensives in South Waziristan back 2004, all unsuccessful.

"If the army opens up multiple fronts, they will be deluged," said Khalid Aziz, a above top administrator in the northwest. "It's like accepting a patient adversity from multiple diseases - you tend to treat those that are life-threatening first."

The army is setting its sights on Hakimullah Mehsud, who became baton of the Pakistani Taliban afterwards its above chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was dead in a U.S. missile strike in August.

Bahadur's breadth of influence lies in North Waziristan aloof beyond the border from South Waziristan, abutting acreage controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. He and his followers appear from a different tribe than the Mehsuds, who make up the majority of the Pakistani Taliban. Nazir controls breadth in South Waziristan.

Both acquiesce their acreage to be used by fighters who cantankerous into Afghanistan and are loyal to the Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban. Omar is believed to be living in Pakistan.

As the region's British colonial rulers did decades ago, the army is exploiting tribal rivalries to try to gain control in the region. Nazir is an old-time opponent of the Mehsud tribe, while Bahadur is reportedly angry over the appointment of Hakimullah as Taliban chief.

Being able to move unimpeded through their breadth gives the Pakistani army a massive boost in its accepted campaign.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there was no agreement with the two men, but "there is an understanding with them that they will not baffle in this war."

He said the army "had to ta! lk to th e devil" to isolate its main target.

Asked whether the agreements were holding, he said: "Obviously, they are not coming to accomplishment or to help" the Pakistani Taliban.

The army said Monday that troops backed by aerial bombing were steadily advancing on three fronts into the arena and meeting annealed resistance in places. It said 78 militants and nine soldiers were dead over the last three days. Militants were not accessible for comment, but said Sunday they had the upper hand.

It is nearly absurd to verify apart what is going on in South Waziristan because the army is blocking admission to it and surrounding towns. There are no reporters traveling with the army, and few - if any - local journalists in the area.

Residents, some fleeing, appear fierce angry and said Pakistani armament were using arms and air attacks.

"There is lots of bombardment: on houses, on mosques, on Islamic boarding schools, on everything," said Fazlu Rehman as he accustomed in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, which lies abutting to South Waziristan.

As abounding as 150,000 civilians - possibly added - accept left South Waziristan in contempo months afterwards the army made clear it was planning an assault, with several thousand over the last few days. Authorities say that up to 200,000 bodies may flee in the coming weeks, but don't expect to accept to house them in camps because best accept relatives in the region.

In Dera Ismail Khan, government employees registered hundreds of bodies who lined up for cash handouts and other aid.

"The bearings in Waziristan is getting worse and worse every day," said Haji Sherzad Mehsud, one of the refugees.

---

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Anne Gearan and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

!

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