Iran sentences 10 to public execution for bombings

TEHRAN, July 25 (Reuters) Iran has sentenced 10 people to public execution over a series of bombings in a southwestern oil province where Iran's Arab minority has been restive for over a year, state television reported today.

Public execution is carried out by hanging.

''The third branch of the revolutionary court in Ahvaz has sentenced 10 people to public execution. They were involved in acting against national security and waging war against God,'' television said.

Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan which produces most of the crude oil shipped out of the world's number four producer. Arabs make up the majority of the population there and many have complained of discrimination by Tehran.

Five people were killed during several days of anti-government protests in Khuzestan in April last year and 21 have been killed in three separate bomb attacks since then.

Minor oil facilities have also been hit, but crude flows from Iran have not been jeopardised.

Officials have blamed the violence on exiled separatist groups operating from neighbouring Iraq. Britain denies Tehran's charges it is supporting Arab rebels.

Slightly more than half of Iran's 69 million people are Persians and the rest are ethnic Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Baluchis and Lors. About three percent are Arabs and authorities are sensitive about protests and discontent in the southwestern Arab territories where most of the oil industry is based.

REUTERS MQA PM2348