Rebels in Iran execute two captive policemen

DUBAI (AFP) — An Iranian Sunni rebel group has said it has executed two more of 16 Iranian border police it says it seized two weeks ago, Al-Arabiya television reported on Friday.

The Dubai-based news channel quoted a spokesman for the Jundullah (Soldiers of God) rebels as saying that the Tehran government had "two more weeks" to answer their demands or risk seeing the remaining captives killed also.

The group reiterated its demand to release 200 of its members it says are being held by Iran, Al-Arabiya said.

Last week Jundullah said it had executed two of the prisoners. Al-Arabiya broadcast footage showing two blindfolded men kneeling in front of a masked gunman, and said the pair were subsequently executed.

The border guards were captured on June 12 at a checkpoint in the town of Saravan, in restive Baluch-populated southeastern Iran, and taken across the border into Pakistan, according to the Iranian authorities.

Jundallah has said it carried out a string of attacks and kidnappings in Sistan-Baluchestan, which is home to a substantial Sunni ethnic Baluch community and lies on a major narcotics route from Afghanistan and Pakistan.