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Was it by chance that at least four of them, including General Nur-Ali Shushtari who was in line to become commander of the IRGC, had attracted some attention thanks to their refusal to endorse President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election last June?

Not surprisingly, the first reaction of most Iranians in the face of such incidents is to suspect the regime itself.

Internally, the regime is suspected of involvement in scores of assassinations, including the murder of dozens of revolutionary figures in the early phases of the Islamic Republic. The history of the past 30 years is full of mysterious incidents in which mullahs, politicians and military figures were removed through "accidents" or incidents presented as terrorist attacks.

Since 1979, when the mullahs seized power, hit squads from Tehran have assassinated 117 Iranian activists in 18 foreign countries, from India to the United States and passing by Britain and France.