Iranian hardliners register as suicide bombers

[leftchick]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21452282.htm

TEHRAN, April 21 (Reuters) - Around 400 volunteers signed up in Tehran to sacrifice their lives in "occupied Islamic countries" on Wednesday night, inspired by a fatwa from a top hardline cleric giving religious backing to suicide missions.

Wednesday's registration session was the latest by a group called the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, which says it has enrolled 35,000 volunteers nationwide for possible attacks since last year.

Iran's pro-reform government has repeatedly said it would not allow groups to carry out such attacks and no Iranians are thought to have directly executed suicide bombings in Israel or elsewhere in recent years.

But the presence of President Mohammad Khatami's adviser on women's affairs and a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leant some official backing to Wednesday's event.