Iran’s militant training camps “a drop in ocean” compared to Pak ones

TEHRAN - Amidst reports that Iranian security officials are training Afghan militants to carry out terror attacks, it is being claimed there were only modest training camps in that country, which were “a drop in the ocean compared to what was going on in Pakistan”.

According to earlier reports, groups of Afghan militants were given an all expenses-paid three-month training at a camp near the Iranian town of Zahedan to attack checkpoints, mountain bases and convoys, as well as plant deadly roadside bombs.

However, a source said: “Iran is a distraction in this compared to what is happening in other neighbours.”

One senior Iranian diplomat further said that there was intelligence that Iran was instead holding off support to the Taliban and had recently refused requests for arms.

One Taliban commander however admitted that a military crackdown in Pakistan is believed to have encouraged Taliban leaders to look to Iran for more help.

“The military is pressuring the Taliban in Pakistan. It is certainly harder to reach places that were once easy to get into. I think more of my fighters will travel to Iran for training this year,” The Times quoted the commander, as saying.

Two Taliban insurgents further informed that the training sessions had begun last winter, and Iran also supplied them with weapons, using donkeys, camels and horses to carry the supplies into Afghanistan. (ANI)