Two bombs go off in Southwestern Iran....

[Windy]

Al Jazeera breaking news....

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

Don't know what kind of bombs, whether it be suicide bombers or....
No full report yet

[bemildred]

1. Several killed in Iran explosion

Three people were killed when an explosion, described as a possible car bombing, hit a crowded bazaar in Ahvaz, southeastern Iran, official media reported.

Iranian state television's Arabic-language satellite news channel Al-Alam said on Saturday that firefighters were at the scene, and that "a bomb placed in a Peugeot" was suspected.

It said three people were injured, although other state television news broadcasts suggested the number of people hurt could be much higher.

Arab separatists

The blast occurred shortly before dusk, when shoppers crowd commercial areas to buy food for iftar - the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan - and coincided with a constitutional referendum in neighbouring Iraq.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D95D9853-C63D-4E26-9BB0-ED321FA78037.htm

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Blasts at Iran shopping centre kill 2, wound 50

TEHRAN, Iran — Two bombs hit a shopping center Saturday in Ahvaz, near Iran's southwestern border with Iraq, killing two people and wounding at least 50, state television reported.

Shops also were damaged in the explosions in central Ahvaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province.

Ahvaz was the site of two days of violent protests in April after reports circulated of an alleged plan to decrease the proportion of Arabs in the area. Arabs make up about 3 percent of Iran's population of 69 million; Persians account for 51 percent.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051015/iran_blasts_051015/20051015?hub=World

[skooooo]

3. So who makes up the other 46%??

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. According to the CIA Factbook

Ethnic groups:
Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ir.html

I had no idea - I thought Persians were the vast majority. How significant it is, I'm not sure; this is an article from the Asia Times, who are normally without bias:

The myth that Azeris in Iran constitute an oppressed minority has only held sway among extreme pan-Turkics in Baku and Ankara. Indeed, the realities of modern Iran depict a very different picture from that of pan-Turkic propaganda. While the total number of Azeris (including the 3-million-strong "Persianized" Azeri residents of Tehran) does not exceed 7 million, they have consistently punched well above their demographic weight. Azeris have dominated the modern Iranian military since its establishment in the 1920s. Moreover, a disproportionate number of Iranian political elites have hailed from the Azeri minority. This was the case with the former Pahlavi regime, just as much as it is the case with the Islamic Republic that succeeded it in 1979. Indeed, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an ethnic Azeri and so is Rahim Safavi, the overall commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the most important military-security official in the country.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI28Ak01.html

[SOS]

6. Here's the breakdown:

51% Persian
24% Azeri
Gliaki 8%
Kurd 7%
Arab 3%
Lur 2%
Balochi 2%
Turkmen 2%

I learned something today. I always thought Iran was overwhelmingly Persian.

[cantstandbush]

7. US Special Ops at it again. Or was it UK or Israel?

You can count on it being one of them POSING as Arabs.

[Gman]

4. What did our Special Ops do there now?

and why?