Iran says 20 Sunni ´terrorists´ executed in single day

TEHRAN: Iran has executed a group of 20 "terrorist" Sunni prisoners for committing several murders and undermining national security, state media reported on Thursday.

"These people had committed murder... killed women and children, caused destructions and acted against the security and killed Sunni religious leaders in some Kurdish regions," IRIB television quoted Prosecutor General Mohammad Javad Montazeri as saying.

He said all the executions -- carried out by hanging -- happened on Tuesday.

Iran´s intelligence ministry on Wednesday issued a statement detailing 24 armed attacks between 2009 and 2011, including bombings and robberies, apparently by a single group.

The "Tawhid (monotheism) and Jihad" extremist outfit were responsible for the deaths of 21 people in three western provinces in that time span, the ministry said.

"102 members and followers of the Tawhid and Jihad terrorist group were identified... some of whom were killed in armed clashes with police forces and some were arrested. Some of those arrested were sentenced to death while some received prison terms," it added.

Montazeri said that the convicts, some of whom had come from abroad, followed "takfiri" ideologies, a term Shiite-majority Iran uses for describing Sunni jihadists.

In 2009, the group allegedly assassinated two Sunni religious leaders Mamusta Borhan Aali and Mamusta Mohammad Sheikh al-Islam -- a provincial representative of Iran´s powerful Assembly of Experts.