'Revolutionary Guards named in Khamenei murder plot'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 12/13/2011 20:04
Detained officials had invited Iran's supreme leader to visit weapons depot same day as explosion, Al Arabiya reports.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves Photo: REUTERS
Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khamenei has ordered the arrest of
a number of senior members of the Revolutionary Guards he suspects of
planning to assassinate him, pan-Arab news Channel Al Arabiya reported
Tuesday.
Khamenei demanded an investigation of the detainees,
"and others," about the alleged assassination plot, an "informed source
in Iran" told the Emirati news station.
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According
to the source, "some of those" detained had invited Khamenei to come
and visit the same weapons depot near Tehran where a large blast killed 17 people, among them the head of Iran's ballistic-missiles program.
Khamenei was invited to visit on Novemeber 12, the same day as the blast, according to the Al Arabiya report.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei's son and an ardent supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of the officials that was arrested, according to the report.
The explosion at Bidganeh, near the city of Karaj, was the first of
three mysterious blasts to occur in Iran in the last few months.
Khamenei survived an attempt to assassinate him in 1981 which paralyzed his right arm.