The Sunni-Shi’ite conflict is not limited just to Iraq. “We will kill our hostages, Sunni group warns Iran,” from the TimesOnline, with thanks to JE:
IRAN was embroiled in a hostage crisis yesterday after Sunni Muslim militants paraded nine captured Iranian soldiers, whom they threatened to kill.
In a move which could damage already strained relations across the region between Shias, the dominant sect in Iran, and Sunnis, the group threatened to kill the captives unless 16 colleagues jailed in Iran were freed.
Footage of the soldiers, who were shown lined up and appealing to their Government to give in to their captors” demands, was broadcast on the Arab satellite channel al-Arabiya.
The threat by the Organisation of God’s Soldiers for Sunni Mujahidin, known as Jundallah, is being taken seriously. One picture, included on the tape but not broadcast, showed a kidnapper holding a knife to the neck of one of the Iranian soldiers.
The same group beheaded an Iranian security agent last summer when it made similar demands and threatened to “send the hostage’s head as a gift to the elected president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]”.
He would probably appreciate the aesthetics of such a gift at very least.