TEHRAN: A suicide bomber blew himself up on Sunday at a meeting in southeastern Iran of the elite Revolutionary Guards, killing seven commanders and 23 other people in an attack Tehran blamed on Washington.
Several tribal leaders at the meeting in Sistan-Baluchestan province — a hotbed of Sunni insurgency — also died in the blast which officials said additionally injured 28 people.
The attacker set off his explosives belt as the meeting got underway around 8.00 amin front of a gymnasium in the city of Pisheen, near the border with Pakistan, the state broadcaster said.
Iran’s parliament speaker said the United States was behind the attack while the Guards accused Western powers for the assault.
Meanwhile, the ISNA news agency reported that Iran has summoned Islamabad’s envoy to Tehran over the bombing, claiming the attack had been launched from Pakistani soil.
The chief prosecutor in Sistan-Baluchestan said Abdolmalek Rigi, the head of the shadowy Sunni rebel group, Jundallah (Soldiers of God) had ‘accepted the responsibility’ for the attack.
‘Based on the latest information... between 30 to 35 people, including military officers, tribal leaders and local citizens, have been martyred in the attack,’ the chief prosecutor, Mohammad Marziah, said, as quoted by ISNA news agency.
‘So far no one has been arrested, but terrorist Malek Rigi has accepted the responsibility for this terrorist attack,’ he said.
Rigi’s group has regularly attacked the Guards, the elite military force set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution to protect the regime from internal and external threats.
Fars news agency said the bomber struck when Guard officers were meeting local leaders of the Shia and Sunni communities, adding some tribal chiefs were among the dead.
Fars said that among the dead were General Nur-Ali Shushtari, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, General Mohammad-Zadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchestan province, the Guards’ commander for the town of Iranshahr and the commander of the Amir al-Momenin unit.
Three other commanders from the adjacent province of Kerman were also killed, according to Fars.
One of the victims, Mohammad Ayoub Dehghani, who was wounded in the stomach, said the bomber ‘must have walked through the people to where the commanders and tribal heads were sitting.’The enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot tolerate the unity, so they hire mercenaries who are supported by the Zionists and arrogant powers to carry out these terrorist attacks,’ IRNA quoted him as saying.
Another victim, Qader Bakhsh Tajdari, who was hurt in the arm said: ‘What have the ordinary people and local chiefs done to be murdered like this?’ President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned of swift retribution against those who carried out the attack.
‘I am ordering the relevant officials to identify quickly the elements of this terrorist crime and hand them over to the judiciary,’ Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by IRNA.
‘I assure the Iranian people, especially the dear people of Sistan-Baluchestan that the criminals will receive very soon a response to their inhuman acts.’ Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said the United States was implicated in the deadly attack.
‘We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action.
This is the sign of America’s animosity against our country,’ Larijani said.
‘Mr. Obama has said he will extend his hand towards Iran, but with this terrorist action he has burned his hand,’ he said referring to US President Barack Obama’s repeated diplomatic overtures to Tehran.
The United States condemned the suicide bombing and denied any involvement in the attack.
‘We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives,’ State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement in Washington.
‘Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false,’ he added.
DAWN.COM | World | At least 29 killed in Iran blast, Jundollah claims attack
Iranian officials have previously accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels such as Jundallah operating in the sensitive border areas, especially in Sistan-Baluchestan province.— AFP
what i am saying is to get out of this kind of maintality, keep things strictly in our own interests, because they dont give damn about us.
