Jihadist Group Blows Up Oil Pipeline In Iran, In Midst Of Protests

Overnight Friday a well-known Sunni jihadist group which operates in Iran posted a video to its media accounts purporting to show an attack on an oil pipeline in Iran's southern Khuzestan province, which has historically been a restive area in which Sunni Arab separatists have been active.

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Ansar al-Furqan’s Ahwaz Martyrs Brigade released pictures which show the group blowing up a pipeline in the Omidiyeh region of Ahvaz, Iran. Via Terror Monitor

Though Iran has yet to confirm the attack, the terror group Ansar al-Furqan Ahwaz Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility in an official statement, which noted "This operation was conducted to inflict losses on the economy of the criminal Iranian regime." Ansar al-Furqan is a relatively new group, having been founded in 2013, and has ties to Syria’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front (currently called Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham). It is comprised primarily of Baluchi Salafist militants which are hostile to the Iranian government - the Baluch people, an entho-linguistic group, are spread primarily throughout southern Iran, Afghanistan, and western Pakistan.

Both the video and written statement identify the location of the attack as near near Omidiyeh, a city in Khuzestan Province - an area of the country which has witnessed periodic uprisings and sporadic bombings going back to 1979 and into the mid-2000's.

According to the AP, this constitutes the first such attack by this particular group:

SITE [the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group] says the attack by Ansar al-Furqan, if confirmed, would be their first in oil-rich southern Iran.

Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest from Kurds in its northwest, the Baloch in its east and Arabs in its south since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But in this case the timing comes at an interesting moment as multiple major Iranian cities are now in the third day of rare anti-government protests widely reported to be fueled primarily by economic grievances, but which notably have included aggressive anti-Rouhani chants and slogans calling for the end of clerical rule, and could get more violent. Ansar al-Furqan specifically cited the desire to target Iran's economy in carrying out the oil pipeline attack.

Meanwhile, late in the day Friday the US State Department issued a formal condemnation of the Iranian government, calling the regime "a rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos" while announcing support for protesters. As we noted, statements now coming from US officials fit a familiar script which seem to roll out when anyone protests in a country considered an enemy of the United States - no matter the motivations and grievances of the demonstrators, whether economic and local or otherwise.

It is very likely that the Sunni jihadist Ansar al-Furqan (which is essentially "Iran's Nusra Front") is seizing on an opportunity to sow chaos in Iran at a moment when the country is in the international spotlight. As White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Friday night, "The world is watching", a sentiment that Trump himself echoed hours later.

Though certainly a radically different movement from the civilian protest movements currently gripping multiple cities across Iran (the Shia-majority populace tends to view the Sunni militant groups which have historically carried out bombings of civilian areas as dangerous terrorists), authorities in Tehran could also use the excuse of the threat of Sunni terror and militancy to broadly crack down on protests and anti-government sentiment.

Comments

shuckster IH8OBAMA Dec 30, 2017 4:45 PM

I'm glad this mantra of "nuke all muslims" is starting to fade from American consciousness. Such a dialogue needs to die soon and fast. First of all, how can we simply "nuke all muslims" off the face of the planet? How can we do so without instigating a war with their allies in Russia and China? Oh, you said "Muslims need to just go away". No, actually. Where are they going to go? America has neither the military might nor the wherewithall to "delete" muslims from the world, and doesn't need to do so anyways. I know you got 8 downvotes, so the point is probably already proven, but I'm going to try to drive the nail into the wood on this one. NO we cannot kill all muslims or disappear them. NO we don't need to. NO we cannot exist in a world as an isolated "white" American race. NO we cannot exist in the world as anything except a dynamic and constantly changing world player. So please, give it a rest with "glass the middle east". That position is completely untenable and highly obnoxious. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a Jewish troll. But sadly, I believe you are just an American who can't see past his own nose

In reply to by IH8OBAMA

shitshitshit BaBaBouy Dec 30, 2017 3:28 PM

I somewhat have the feeling Iranians and Russians are already prepared to the Americano Zionist strategies of inserting agents to blow up pipelines, generate unrest and destabilize a country while narrating it is a legitimate color blah blah revolution. 

I think they will parade these guys and make them speak when they catch them. 

Let's wait a little...

In reply to by BaBaBouy

Jumanji1959 svayambhu108 Dec 30, 2017 2:36 PM

Why do I get the feeling that Nuttyandyahoo has a hand in this?  The jews want all the land in the middle east because apparently God promised it to them.  The only problem is that the Zionists of this day are not God's people because they do not represent the initial 12 tribes of Israel that God had made this promise to. 

 

The talmudic jews of today are fakes.

In reply to by svayambhu108

Jumanji1959 Klassenfeind Dec 30, 2017 2:42 PM

Semites = jews and arabs straight from the loins of Abraham.  When the jews were cast out of Israel by the romans, many semites lived in the countryside of Israel, this includes talmudic and muslim believing folks.   When the jews of today are throwing out Palestinians, they are attacking semites, family members!!!

 

Iranians are not arabs.  Thank God!!!  They are Persians and descendants of a mighty empire!!

In reply to by Klassenfeind