Iranian troops kill top anti-Govt guerrilla

Press, 10 February 1982, Page 8

Iranian troops kill top anti-Govt guerrilla

NZPA-Reuter London Iranian security forces yesterday killed' - . Mussa Kheyyabani. public enemy No. i of Teheran's Islamic regime, Teheran Radio has said.

Also gunned down in an attack on their safe house in a north Teheran suburb were 12 other leading members of the underground opposition Mujahedeen movement. They included Mr Kheyyabani'S wife and the wife of Massoud Rajavi who leads the Mujahedeen's campaign, to topple Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinv. ' from his exile

base in Paris. Mussa Kheyyabani was leader of the Mujahedeen's Left-wing and ranked as No. 2 in the movement. He stayed on in Iran as operational commander of the movement after Mr Rajavi fled into exile, leaving him with sole authority to act against the clerical regime. The Teheran authorities allege that guerrillas under his command carried out bombings last year that killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai. President Mohammad Javad Bahonar. and

Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti. In retaliation, the authorities have executed more than 2000 alleged Mujahedeen and other opposition supporters in the last eight months. In Bonn, the Foreign Ministry has said that West Germany's Ambassador to Iran was ambushed and shot at in Teheran yesterday but escaped with light injuries. . Ambassador Jens Petersen and two other people in his armour-plated car were hit by broken glass but were otherwise unscathed, he said.