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Iranian regime shaken by murders and insecurity

TEHRAN, Jan 17 (AFP) - Political killings and kidnappings, death threats against intellectuals and dissidents, and violent killings of citizens on an almost daily basis, have deepened a sense of insecurity in Iran ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Iran has been gripped by a vicious cycle of death threats and murders against dissidents and writers as well as professionals, as rival political factions are locked in a power struggle ahead of the anniversary on February 11.

News of horrific murders in Tehran's northern residential suburbs in recent weeks, widespread political violence and arrests, disappearances and failed assassination attempts are also becoming commonplace.

Tehran has seen three murders in the past days. Jurist Javad Emami and his wife were slaughtered in their home in northern Tehran this week, and in another incident, Fatemeh Eslami, the wife of a well-known translator was found strangled to death at her home with a scarf she was wearing, on Wednesday.

Reza Alijani, the editor of the liberal political monthly Iran-e-Farda (Tomorrow's Iran), was issued a death threat by a shadowy group calling itself the Fedayeen (Devotees) of Pure Islam.

The review's director, Ezatollah Sahabi, informed the interior ministry that Alijani had been threatened with death for giving interviews to foreign radio stations.

In the central city of Esfahan, weekly Moslem prayers were disrupted when fundamentalists heckled and threw objects at prayer leader Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri and provincial governor Jaafar Musavi, both allies of moderate President Mohammad Khatami.

These events are taking place under the shadow of press reports of a list, as yet undisclosed, of 179 writers and moderates who have been threatened with death.

Whether political or criminal, the murders have been a serious blow to the regime's image and provoked a war of words between Iran's principal political factions on the eve of anniversary celebrations.

Radical leftwingers backing Khatami and conservatives are blaming each other for the murders.

The verbal melee broke out after the intelligence ministry announced last week that rogue agents were involved in the murders of two nationalist dissidents and three writers.

Radicals have called on conservative Intelligence Minister Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi to resign, while conservatives have accused pro-Khatami left-wingers of being involved in the murders.

Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani pleaded with rival factions to call a truce, warning that "none of you will benefit from this dispute."

"Our being at each other's throats has pleased the enemy and prompted them to raise questions about our regime and the (1979 Islamic) revolution," he said.

"Our regime and people definitely suffered from these murders. They damaged our security and harmed our international prestige," he said.

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