Information and liaison bulletin - Institut kurde de Paris

Iran Blamed~
InKillings of
2 Political
FoesAhroad
By Patrick
Washington
E. Tyler
Post Service
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
- Iran's revolutionary government
appears to be responsible for two
recent political assassinations outside
its borders, according to Western
law enforcement and diplomatic
sources.
The July 13 killing of a dissident
Kurdish leader in VieMa and the
June 4 attack in the United Arab
Emirates on a former military intel.
ligence colone.! under Shah Mohammed
Reza Pahlavi were sophisticated
operations, and local police
authorities suspect Iranian intelligence
agents in both cases.
The cases are unusual because
Iran has seldom sought to execute
its enemies by sending professional .
killers to foreign capitals.
The Austrian foreign minister,
Alois Mock, said last week that it
was "probable" that Iran was behind
the killing of Abdul-Rahman
Qassemlou and two other anti-Iranian
Kurds. Iran denied any responsibility
for their deaths.
In the Gulf region senior West-.
em diplomats said that Dubai police
officials had concluded that
Ataellah Bayahmadi had been
killed by an Iranian assassin.
In each case the assassinations
have further strained Iran's relations
with otherwise friendly governments
and have put other Arab.
and European countries on the
alert for increased activity by Iranian
hit squads.
Some Iranian exile sources in
Europe have asserted that Iran's
Revolutionary Guards and Ministry
of Intelligence have set up a
political assassination unit to
eradicate foes on foreign soil. But
Western diplomats who monitor'
Iran have suggested that the killings
may be the result of unre- .
solved power struggles between
hard-line and moderate factions,
with hard-liners attempting to
claim a role as enforcers against
counterrevolutionary and dissident
groups abroad.
If such an assassination unit has
been established, according to
Western diplomats, it would raise
new questions in the West about
the lack of control by more moderate
and pragmatic leaders who appeared
to be increasing their power
after the death June 3 of Iran's
revolutionary founder, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
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