Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah (Soldiers of God), the armed Iranian Sunni Muslim group, has been hanged, according to the official IRNA news agency.

"After the decision of the Tehran revolutionary tribunal, Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged on Sunday morning," IRNA said.

The Court statement, says the agency, motivated its sentence by writing that "The head of the armed counter-revolutionary group in the east of the country ... was responsible for armed robbery, assassination attempts, armed attacks on the army and police and on ordinary people, and murder." The death sentence was pronounced on 79 counts of crimes.

Abdolmalek Rigi was from the Regi tribe who are an ethnic Baloch people.

The court statement added that Jundallah was responsible for the killing of 154 security personnel and civilians since 2003.

The execution of Rigi certainly is a severe blow to Jundallah.

According to the television channel al Jazeera the Iranian authorities have issued an order, a kind of a pardon, to all the members of Jundallah who put down their weapons and come ask for forgiveness.

According to some reports, more than 200 members of Jundallah have already done that after Abdolmalek was arrested.

Rigi's younger brother Abdulhamid was executed last month.

Iran has repeatedly said that Jundallah is backed by the United States.

The US has dismissed these claims as propaganda.