Iran hangs three men for 2005 bombings - agency

TEHRAN, Feb 14 (Reuters) Iran today executed three men convicted of taking part in a series of deadly blasts in the southwest oil city of Ahvaz in 2005, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Ahvaz is the capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province with a large ethnic Arab population which has been simmering with anti-government unrest since 2005.

The men hanged today in Ahvaz prison were the last in a group of 10 to be executed in recent months after being convicted of participating in the bomb attacks and acting against the country's security.

Five people were killed in several days of anti-government protests in Khuzestan in April 2005. In the months that followed, bomb attacks killed more than 20 people.

Fars said the three men were hanged in front of some of the families whose relatives were killed in the 2005 blasts.

Three of the convicted group were publicly executed in December, followed by four more last month.

The European Union condemned the previous executions and said it had raised concerns with the Iranian authorities about the conduct of the trial that had led to the death sentences.

It had also called on Iran not to execute the remaining three.

Iran has accused Britain, which has troops close by in southern Iraq, of fuelling tension in the province. Britain denies the charge.

REUTERS KD RN1953