AP Photo
Zahedan:
A Sunni insurgent group said it carried out a double suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque in southeast Iran to avenge the execution of its leader, as Iranian authorities on Friday said the death toll rose to 27, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard.
The blast was the latest by the group Jundallah, which has repeatedly succeeded in carrying out deadly strikes on the Guard, the country's most powerful military force.
Shiite worshippers were attending ceremonies on Thursday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein, when the first blast went off outside the mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan.
According to authorities, the first blast caused minimal damage, but it prompted people to rush to the site where they were caught by a second explosion.
Similar tactics have been used by Sunni insurgents in Iraq to maximise civilian casualties. Local lawmaker Hossein Ali Shahriari told the semi-official ISNA news agency the male bomber was disguised as a woman.Members of the Guard were among the worshippers, particularly because the ceremonies coincided with Iran's official Revolutionary Guard Day.
Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastagerdi told ISNA that the toll stood at 27 dead but could still rise, and that another 270 had been injured, including 11 in serious condition.The deputy interior minister, Ali Abdollahi, told the Fars news agency that several Guard members were among the dead.
The governor of the Sistan-Baluchistan province told state TV that at least 167 people were injured in the blasts.
He also said investigations on finding the responsible party would continue despite one group already claiming responsibility.
The Jundallah insurgency, a Sunni group that has killed scores in recent years, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on their website saying it had killed more than a 100 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard in revenge for the execution of their leader last month.The group struck another mosque in Zahedan in May 2009, killing 25 people.
Iran accuses the United States and Britain of supporting Jundallah in a plot to weaken Tehran's clerical leadership, a claim both countries deny.On Friday, officials blamed them for the latest attack. The leader of Tehran's Friday prayers, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi, accused the US of orchestrating the bombings to divert attention from the controversy surrounding an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims he was abducted by US agents. "They wanted to overshadow this failure and scandal with this crime and it proves America's humiliation and its intelligence and political weakness on the international scene," he told worshippers.
Scientist Shahram Amiri returned to Iran from the US on Thursday amid an escalating propaganda war between Tehran and Washington. US officials say Amiri defected and was paid five million US dollars for information about his country's nuclear programmes, but Iran claims he was kidnapped.
General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard, told worshippers on Friday that the victims of the attack were "martyred" by "mercenaries" working for the US and UK. He claimed the Revolutionary Guard had an "unlimited quantity" of missiles that could be used to defend Iran, adding they "are capable of targeting regional aims at any quantity and from any point."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the bombing and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
Jundallah has been waging an insurgency for years in the remote Sistan-Baluchistan province, a lawless area where smuggling and banditry are rife.The groups says it is fighting for the rights of the mainly Sunni ethnic Baluchi minority, which it says suffers discrimination at the hands of Iran's Shiite's leadership. Iran has accused the group of links to al-Qaida, but experts say no evidence of such a link has been found.
Iran executed Jundallah's leader in June in Zahedan, a month after hanging his brother Abdulhamid Rigi, who had been captured in Pakistan in 2008 and extradited to Iran. The group named a new leader, al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch.Jundallah has repeatedly targeted the Revolutionary Guards.
In its deadliest attack, a suicide bomber hit a meeting between Guard commanders and Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders in the border town of Pishin on October 18, killing 42 people, including 15 Guard members.
The blast was the latest by the group Jundallah, which has repeatedly succeeded in carrying out deadly strikes on the Guard, the country's most powerful military force.
Shiite worshippers were attending ceremonies on Thursday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein, when the first blast went off outside the mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan.
According to authorities, the first blast caused minimal damage, but it prompted people to rush to the site where they were caught by a second explosion.
Similar tactics have been used by Sunni insurgents in Iraq to maximise civilian casualties. Local lawmaker Hossein Ali Shahriari told the semi-official ISNA news agency the male bomber was disguised as a woman.Members of the Guard were among the worshippers, particularly because the ceremonies coincided with Iran's official Revolutionary Guard Day.
Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastagerdi told ISNA that the toll stood at 27 dead but could still rise, and that another 270 had been injured, including 11 in serious condition.The deputy interior minister, Ali Abdollahi, told the Fars news agency that several Guard members were among the dead.
The governor of the Sistan-Baluchistan province told state TV that at least 167 people were injured in the blasts.
He also said investigations on finding the responsible party would continue despite one group already claiming responsibility.
The Jundallah insurgency, a Sunni group that has killed scores in recent years, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on their website saying it had killed more than a 100 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard in revenge for the execution of their leader last month.The group struck another mosque in Zahedan in May 2009, killing 25 people.
Iran accuses the United States and Britain of supporting Jundallah in a plot to weaken Tehran's clerical leadership, a claim both countries deny.On Friday, officials blamed them for the latest attack. The leader of Tehran's Friday prayers, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi, accused the US of orchestrating the bombings to divert attention from the controversy surrounding an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims he was abducted by US agents. "They wanted to overshadow this failure and scandal with this crime and it proves America's humiliation and its intelligence and political weakness on the international scene," he told worshippers.
Scientist Shahram Amiri returned to Iran from the US on Thursday amid an escalating propaganda war between Tehran and Washington. US officials say Amiri defected and was paid five million US dollars for information about his country's nuclear programmes, but Iran claims he was kidnapped.
General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard, told worshippers on Friday that the victims of the attack were "martyred" by "mercenaries" working for the US and UK. He claimed the Revolutionary Guard had an "unlimited quantity" of missiles that could be used to defend Iran, adding they "are capable of targeting regional aims at any quantity and from any point."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the bombing and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
Jundallah has been waging an insurgency for years in the remote Sistan-Baluchistan province, a lawless area where smuggling and banditry are rife.The groups says it is fighting for the rights of the mainly Sunni ethnic Baluchi minority, which it says suffers discrimination at the hands of Iran's Shiite's leadership. Iran has accused the group of links to al-Qaida, but experts say no evidence of such a link has been found.
Iran executed Jundallah's leader in June in Zahedan, a month after hanging his brother Abdulhamid Rigi, who had been captured in Pakistan in 2008 and extradited to Iran. The group named a new leader, al-Hajj Mohammed Dhahir Baluch.Jundallah has repeatedly targeted the Revolutionary Guards.
In its deadliest attack, a suicide bomber hit a meeting between Guard commanders and Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders in the border town of Pishin on October 18, killing 42 people, including 15 Guard members.
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