In Coid Blood

Evidence of P.O.W. killings

For nearly two years, Iran and Iraq have been locked in an inconclusive war notable for its size and savagery. An estimated 200,000 soldiers from both sides have died, and 70,000 more have been taken prisoner. Yet even by those grim standards the charge was shocking: that Iran's Islamic Guards, fanatical supporters of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, have massacred substantial numbers of unarmed Iraqi prisoners of war.

The allegation surfaced last week in Paris, where members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a Muslim socialist party opposed to the Khomeini regime, released photos purporting to be of one such incident. The massacre, said to have occurred last January in Bostan, a town in the southwestern province of Khuzistan, was photographed by Iranian officers sympathetic to the Mujahedin. According to the officers, Islamic Guards assembled a group of Iraqi prisoners in front of pictures of Khomeini and ordered them to chant slogans praising the Ayatullah. Several dozen Iraqis refused. They were led away, and their hands were tied behind their backs. As regular army officers watched in disbelief, an earthmover dug a large ditch. After the prisoners had been placed along the edge, the guards opened fire. The bodies tumbled into the waiting grave.

Other disgruntled Iranian officers have reported similar killings by the Islamic Guards, who fight alongside the regular army but are under the command of the Islamic clergy. Last February, a group of guards allegedly captured about 15 Iraqi soldiers in Gilan-e Gharb, an Iranian border town. As the P.O.W.s were being escorted to a makeshift detention center, a wounded Islamic Guard suddenly pointed at one of the Iraqis and yelled, "He killed Hamid!" The accused man was shot to death on the spot. The guards then killed the other prisoners with bullets and bayonets. On several occasions, the guards have simply led prisoners to an isolated spot in the battle zone and killed them. When the guards returned to camp, they informed curious army officers that they had suddenly found themselves behind enemy lines and could not have returned safely with the Iraqis. Said one Iranian army officer: "We usually can't stop the guards because they have the support of the clergymen at the front."

Indeed, the Islamic clergy ignores and at times even encourages the mistreatment of Iraqi P.O.W.s. The massacres are seen as a way to boost Iraqi casualty figures and, perhaps more important, to instill ferocity and brutality in the ill-trained guards for their larger mission. Most of them serve only a short time at the front before being shipped back to the cities to battle the regime's stubborn domestic opponents.

That home-front war is getting bloodier too. Late last week, a bomb hidden in a truck exploded in the heart of the capital, destroying a five-story hotel and three passing buses. Hundreds of wounded people were rushed to nearby hospitals, and rescue workers pulled dozens of bodies out of the rubble. According to Tehran Radio, some 60 were killed and 700 wounded. But at week's end authorities still were not sure exactly how many were dead or who had planted the explosives.

Meanwhile, urban guerrillas keep up their attacks. In Tehran alone, about 70 Islamic Guards a week are being killed by the Mujahedin. In one elaborate attack last week, the guerrillas staged a noisy motorcade for a pair of supposed newly weds. When Islamic Guards told the "wedding party" that it was against Khomeini's rules to celebrate in the streets, the bride protested loudly. As the argument grew heated and more guards gathered, one of the drivers honked his horn as a signal. The wedding guests suddenly pulled out submachine guns and blasted away. The toll: at least 25 Islamic Guards dead.

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