Tehran: Iran denied on Monday media reports that a firefight last week in the country's lawless southeastern borderlands was an assassination attempt on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Government officials said Ahmadinejad was making a speech in Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, on Wednesday when a car carrying security forces was attacked by smugglers on the road to the Gulf port of Chaharbahar.
"During the attack, the local driver and a Revolutionary Guardsman was killed. The police immediately intervened. One smuggler was killed and one arrested," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a news conference.
The December 15 incident coincided with a visit to the province byAhmadinejad - sparking rumours and reports in some foreign media that the president himself was targetted.
Officials said the vehicle that came under fire was not part of Ahmadinjad's cavalcade and that there had been no question of the president travelling on that road.
The vehicle had been deployed as part of largescale security measures imposed for the presidential visit.
"The attack just shows this region is very insecure for everyone: Sunnis, Shiites, Baluch and non-Baluch," Elham said.
In his speech in Zahedan, Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a myth, sparking international uproar.
