Iran kills 30 "terrorists" inside Iraq: MP

An Iranian lawmaker said an operation that killed some 30 "terrorists" the Islamic state says were behind a deadly bomb attack, had taken place in neighboring Iraq, according to a news report on Friday.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had killed the "main elements" behind a September bombing in northwestern Iran, in an area near the Iran-Iraq border that had killed 12 people and injured 80.

The blast took place during an annual military parade in the city of Mahabad. Iranian authorities blamed it on "anti-revolutionary" militants backed by the United States and Israel.

"The perpetrators of this assassination were killed on Iraqi soil and security forces are still perusing evidence to identify the architects of this act of terrorism," lawmaker Abdol Mohammad Baba Ahmadi Milani was quoted as saying by the website of Iran's English-language state-run Press TV.

The lawmaker did not give further details on the operation but said video of it would soon be released.

Iran shares a long border with its neighbor Iraq and the two countries fought a bitter eight-year war in the 1980s.

A small contingent of Iranian troops moved into an inactive oilfield inside Iraqi territory in December but withdrew in January after talks by both sides.

Iranian media have often reported clashes in western Iran between security forces and Kurdish guerrillas said to be members of Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey and northwest Iran.

Ahmadi Milani blamed the blast on PJAK and PKK "elements", according to Press TV.

Several armed groups hostile to the establishment are active in Iran, including Kurdish separatists in the northwest, Baluch militants in the southeast and some Arabs in the southwest.

The perpetrators of this assassination were killed on Iraqi soil and security forces are still perusing evidence to identify the architects of this act of terrorism

Iranian MP Abdol Mohammad Baba Ahmadi Milani

Iran blasts US “interference”

Earlier on Friday, Tehran hit against U.S. "interference" after Washington ordered sanctions against senior Iranian officials for alleged human rights abuses during a crackdown on post-election protests last year.

"This decision is in line with the U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Iran for the past 30 years," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

"It goes against international law," he added.

U.S. President Barack Obama imposed the sanctions against eight senior Iranian officials on Wednesday over the crackdown against anti-government protesters who rejected the outcome of the Islamic republic's 2009 presidential election.

The order will freeze any U.S. assets held by the eight, who include Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari and former Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazevi.

On Thursday, Iran summoned Livia Leu Agosti, the ambassador of Switzerland which manages U.S. interests in Tehran, to protest against the move which it called "illegal."

After the 2009 presidential election, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters defied a government ban and poured onto the streets of Tehran to protest against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Human rights groups have accused the government of suppressing the uprising through extra-judicial killings, rapes and torture.

Separately, Iran's police chief said on Friday his forces will crack down on anyone who uses economic sanctions imposed by the world community on Iran over its nuclear program to "create trouble."

"The forces of order will act against those wishing to take advantage of the economic sanctions and act in line with the enemies by creating economic trouble and strikes," General Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam said.

"The enemies are seeking, with their economic threats, to push people toward disobedience and to provoke social troubles," he added, quoted by the ISNA news agency.

In June, the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions over Iran's controversial program of uranium enrichment, which many Western states believe may be a covert bid to make a nuclear bomb, a charge Tehran denies.

The United States and European Union have since unilaterally imposed even tougher punitive measures, with provisions to penalize Tehran's trading partners.

This is the first time that a senior official has acknowledged the sanctions could have such an effect.

Ahmadinejad, the government and the official press have systematically minimized the significance of the sanctions, saying instead they will actually help to strengthen Iran's economic independence.

The enemies are seeking, with their economic threats, to push people toward disobedience and to provoke social troubles

General Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam