TEHRAN - Iran has hanged two convicted drug smugglers in a prison in the town of Taibad in the eastern Khorasan Razavi province, the student ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The men, identified as M.T. and M.R., were found guilty of bringing an unidentified narcotic substance into the country, the agency said, quoting the local judiciary.
The date of the execution was not specified.
It said that the local revolutionary court also warned that it was "the security forces of the Islamic republic are ready to combat decisively those who deal in death."
The hangings brought to at least 159 the number of executions carried out in the Islamic republic so far this year, most of them by hanging and often in public.
At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to Amnesty International, making Iran the most prolific applier of the death penalty in the world after China.
Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, pederasty, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.
Iran has stepped up executions of rapists, drug traffickers and others deemed a public menace in recent months as part of a campaign it says is aimed at improving security in society.
08/14/2007 11:53 GMT