15 dead in attack on Iranian mosque

TEHRAN - A suicide attack on a mosque in southeastern Iran Thursday killed at least 15 people and injured 22, the Iranian interior ministry said.

Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi told Fars news agency the bombings took place in the city of Zahedan. He added that the death toll was likely to increase, and among those killed were members of the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) stationed nearby.

Official news agency IRNA quoted the emergency centre in Zahedan as saying that the death toll had already reached 20 and more than 100 were injured. The report had not yet been confirmed.

The attack is believed to have been made by the radical Sunnite group Jundollah (Soldiers of God) as retaliation for the execution last month of its leader Abdolmalik Rigi.

The deputy head of the parliament’s national security commission, Mohammad Kosari, accused groups related to the Jundollah for the bombing.

An official of the IRGC accused the US of being behind Thursday’s bombings in Zahedan.

General Yadollah Javani told Fars news agency that due to the US and Israeli support for the Jundollah group, “there should be no doubt that these countries are also behind the latest bombings”.

The US has constantly denied the Iranian charges of supporting Jundollah but Iran said that Rigi himself had confessed before his execution to have had direct links with the US.

Zahedan is the capital of the Sistan-Beluchistan province which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is a major drug-trafficking region as well as one of the country’s most unstable areas.

Abdolmalek Rigi and his group are accused by Iran of trafficking illegal drugs, kidnapping and bombings in Sistan-Baluchistan and sowing discord between the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority in Iran.

The group also claimed responsibility for a bombing in the province that killed more than 40 people, including 15 senior members of the Revolutionary Guards, in October.