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TEHRAN, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran has dismantled a terrorist cell and arrested 40 suspects in its southeastern border region, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said Thursday.
In the operations over the past two nights, a 40-meter long and 20-meter deep underground tunnel was discovered in the hideout of the terrorists, official IRNA news agency reported.
On Wednesday, the police chief of southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, Hossein Rahimi, said intelligence forces dismantled and arrested a team of saboteurs in the border city of Khash, Tasnim news agency reported.
Governor of Khash country, Mohammad Akbar Chaker Zehi, also told IRNA that the "terrorists" had planned to target two major military and security bases in the province.
The reports did not identify the political and ethnic affiliation of those arrested.
In June, Iranian security forces killed five members of the Jaish-ul-Adl, or Army of Justice, group in Sistan and Baluchestan, and confiscated substantial amounts of ammunition.
The Pakistani-based Jaish al-Adl is a rebel group fighting for the greater rights for Sunni Muslims in the Iranian provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, and is blamed for numerous attacks on Iran's border posts.
