Iranian suicide squads ready to hit US, British targets

LONDON – AFP- Iran has formed battalions of suicide bombers to hit American and British targets if its nuclear installations are attacked, The Sunday Times newspaper said. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers were ready to strike, the British weekly broadsheet said.

Iran is in a stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme, which the Islamic republic insists is for entirely peaceful purposes.

The Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards was first spotted in March when members marched in a military parade.

The force wore explosive packs around their waists and held detonators, the newspaper said.

Doctor Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said that 29 Western targets had been identified.

?We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Irans nuclear facilities,? he said in a speech, according to The Sunday Times.

He said that some of them were ?quite close? to the Iranian border in Iraq.

In a tape recording heard by the respected weekly, Abbasi told the would-be martyrs to ?pay close attention to wily England? and vowed that ?Britains demise is on our agenda?.

The Sunday Times said that at a recruiting station for the force in Tehran recently, volunteers had to state whether they would prefer to attack American targets in Iraq or Israeli targets.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced last Tuesday that the Islamic republic had successfully enriched uranium itself for use as nuclear fuel, sparking a wave of international condemnations.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations? watchdog, is due to present a report on Iran?s nuclear programme on April 28.

The United States insists it is seeking a diplomatic solution but has not ruled out the use of force despite opposition from even its closest allies.