TEHRAN, Jan 24: Iranian authorities on Wednesday hanged four Arabs convicted of bombings that killed dozens of civilians in southern Iran.

The four Arab Iranians were hanged in a prison in Ahvaz, 850kms southwest of Tehran.

Earlier this month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch had urged Iran to rescind the death sentences of the men and retry the defendants before courts that meet international fair trial standards.

The convicts were part of a larger group of Arabs arrested in 2005 and 2006 in the oil-rich south-western Khuzestan province, close to the border with Iraq.

They were charged in connection with the Jan 2006, June and Oct 2005 bombings that had killed 23 people and wounded dozens more in the provincial capital of Ahvaz.

The blasts appeared to have been linked to unrest among Arab Iranians, who amount to less than three per cent of the national population and live mostly in Khuzestan.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had blamed `the occupiers of Iraq’ _ a reference to the United States and Great Britain _ for supporting the bombers.

An Iranian Arab group, known as The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, claimed responsibility for the blasts.—AP