IRAN was embroiled in a hostage crisis yesterday after Sunni Muslim militants paraded nine captured Iranian soldiers, whom they threatened to kill.

In a move which could damage already strained relations across the region between Shias, the dominant sect in Iran, and Sunnis, the group threatened to kill the captives unless 16 colleagues jailed in Iran were freed.

Footage of the soldiers, who were shown lined up and appealing to their Government to give in to their captors’ demands, was broadcast on the Arab satellite channel al-Arabiya.

The threat by the Organisation of God’s Soldiers for Sunni Mujahidin, known as Jundallah, is being taken seriously. One picture, included on the tape but not broadcast, showed a kidnapper holding a knife to the neck of one of the Iranian soldiers.

The same group beheaded an Iranian security agent last summer when it made similar demands and threatened to “send the hostage’s head as a gift to the elected president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]”.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the Iranian Interior Minister, said yesterday that he was confident the men would be freed.

“The case has been reviewed by the country’s Security Council and the investigation is continuing. There is a hope that the situation can be resolved peacefully,” he said. “In the next few days, we will witness good news on this matter.”

The soldiers are believed to have been captured at the weekend in the remote southeastern corner of Iran and taken across the border into Pakistan. The Baluchistan region, which straddles the border, is notoriously lawless and Iranian forces have been engaged in regular clashes with armed groups along the frontier.

Iran is 90 per cent Shia and the religious leadership in control of the country is made up entirely of Shia clerics. Minorities, particularly Sunnis, allege discrimination against them. Sunnis are a majority in Iranian Baluchistan and have close tribal connections in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jundallah is thought to be headed by Abdul Malik Baluchi, a local tribal leader.

The growing Shia-Sunni divisions in Iran are part of a pattern across the region where Islam is becoming increasingly polarised. Relations are strained in Lebanon, where Sunnis blame a series of murders on Syrian support for the Shia group Hezbollah. Much of the bloodshed in Iraq involves Sunni attacks on Shias.

The issue could become more pronounced if President Ahmadinejad pursues his stated policy of returning Iran to the days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 headed by Ayatollah Khomeini. Then the country exported its brand of revolution across the Middle East, supporting militant Shia groups in the Gulf, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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