Rebels say kidnap 4 Iran troops, issue video: TV

Dubai, Mar 9: An Iranian Sunni Muslim rebel group said it kidnapped four Revolutionary Guards and issued a video purportedly showing the hostages, Al Arabiya television reported today.

The video from the group called Jundollah (God's soldiers) showed the four young men, one of them wearing a military uniform, sitting on the floor while two masked, armed militants stood behind them.

''In an ... audio tape issued with the video, a spokesman for the movement said the hostages were an officer and three soldiers of the Revolutionary Guards,'' the Dubai-based television said. ''The spokesman denied the group was linked to al Qaeda, Taliban or US intelligence.'' Last month, Iran hanged a man convicted of involvement in a bomb attack on a Revolutionary Guards bus that killed 11 people in the southeast of the country, one of several attacks claimed by Jundollah in the past few years.

Iran has linked the shadowy group to al Qaeda. Some officials have accused the United States, Tehran's arch-foe, of supporting the rebels to increase tension in southeastern areas near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The poor region is home to some of Iran's minority Sunnis, some of whom say they suffer discrimination in the Shi'ite-dominated Islamic Republic.

Reuters