Iran Shia Mosque Attack Leaves Dozens Dead

Iran Shia mosque attack leaves dozens dead
More than 20 people were killed when suspected suicide bombers set off two explosions outside a Shia mosque in the city of Zahedan in Iran's predominantly Sunni south-east on Thursday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...zens-dead.html

Published: 9:30PM BST 15 Jul 2010

Members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were among those killed and injured when the explosions hit Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.

The attack came less than a month after Iran hanged the leader of a militant insurgent group in the region.

Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy governor of the province as saying the explosions struck in a crowd of Shia worshippers near the main Zahedan Jamia mosque.

"The first explosion took place behind a checkpoint and a number of Revolutionary Guard members were killed and injured because of it," Ali Abdollahi, the deputy interior minister, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency, without giving further details.

Ali Abdollahi, the deputy interior minister, earlier said it was a "suicide operation" which had left more than 100 wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings, but Sistan-Baluchistan province is home to the Jundallah insurgency, a Sunni group that has claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed scores in recent years, including five senior Revolutionary Guard commanders last year.

Jundallah has said it is fighting for the rights of the Sunni Baluch minority in Shia-dominated Iran.

In June, Iran hanged the group's leader, Abdulhamid Rigi, in Zahedan after he was found guilty of carrying out attacks against civilians, armed robbery, and engaging in a disinformation campaign against Iran.

His younger brother, Abdulhamid, was executed in May in Iran after being captured in Pakistan in 2008 and extradited to Iran.

Iran has accused the US and Britain of supporting Jundallah in an effort to weaken the Iranian government, a charge both countries deny. Iran also claims the group is linked to al-Qaeda, but experts have said no evidence of such a link has been found.

Iran Blames US, Israel for Deadly Bombings in Zahedan

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8904250716

7/16/2010

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior official of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) took the US and the Zionist regime of Israel responsible for the two deadly suicide bomb attacks in the southeastern city of Zahedan in Sistan and Balouchestan province which took 27 lives.

The latest terrorist attack in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan points to the involvement of terrorist groups under the auspices of the United States, Israel and some Western countries, which seek sectarian division, Head of IRGC's Political Bureau Yadollah Javani told FNA on Friday.

Two explosions in the front of Zahedan's Grand Mosque on Thursday night left 27 martyrs and 270 injured.

The first explosion occurred at 9:20 p.m. local time (1650 GMT) in front of the city's Grand Mosque, and was followed by a second blast within minutes.

"The enemy seeks out division between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in order to create chaos in the country," Javani noted.

"One could not doubt the involvement of secret foreign services in the efforts to generate tension amongst Muslims," he further explained.

The Iranian official also noted that confessions made by Abdolmalek Rigi, the Pakistan-based Jundollah terrorist group's ringleader, before his execution last month, unveiled widespread US support for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic.

"Rigi's confessions prove that the US, Zionists and some European countries are directly linked with the Zahedan blasts, because he had confessed that the US wants bomb attacks to be carried out across Iran," he said.

Iran Guards warn U.S. of "fallout" over bomb attack

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE66G0O620100717

(Gold9472: Why is there no "U.S. Government officials refuse to comment on the allegation," or anything like that?)

By Ramin Mostafavi and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN | Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:35pm BST

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The United States will face "fallout" from a deadly rebel bomb attack in southeast Iran, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Saturday by a semi-official Iranian news agency.

Massoud Jazayeri did not elaborate on what he meant. Iran has accused arch-foe Washington of backing Jundollah, the group that claimed responsibility for Thursday's blasts that killed 28 people and wounded 306, including members of the Guards.

"Jundollah has been supported by America for its terrorist acts in the past ... America will have to await the fallout of such criminal and savage measures," said Jazayeri, deputy head of the dominant ideological wing of Iran's armed forces.

Jundollah, a Sunni Muslim rebel group, said it set off the bombs at a prominent Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the city of Zahedan in retaliation for the Islamic Republic's execution in June of Jundollah leader Abdolmalek Rigi.

Iran says Jundollah has links to Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and in the past has accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of backing Jundollah to create instability in the southeast of predominantly Shi'ite Iran.

All three countries have denied this, and Jundollah denies having any association with al Qaeda.

Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, an envoy of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the funeral, also blamed Washington for the attack, the official news agency IRNA reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday condemned the bombing and said those responsible must be brought to account.

"The murder of innocent civilians in their place of worship is an intolerable offence, and those who carried it out must be held accountable," Obama said in a statement.

The United States is embroiled in a stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful energy purposes but Washington and other world powers suspect is a cover to develop the means to build atom bombs.

Tehran and Washington severed diplomatic relations shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Jundollah, which says it is fighting for the rights of Iran's Sunni Muslim minority, said Rigi's relatives carried out the bombings targeting a Revolutionary Guards gathering.

The bodies of those killed were buried on Saturday in a ceremony in Zahedan attended by tens of thousands of people, according to Iranian state television.

Live footage showed the coffins, shrouded in Iranian flags, being carried on trucks with mourners chanting "Death to America" and demanding punishment of the attackers.

Iran arrested Rigi in February, four months after Jundollah claimed responsibility for a bombing which killed dozens of people, including 15 members of the Guards. That was the deadliest attack in Iran since the 1980s.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province on the border with Sunni Muslim Pakistan. The province is dogged by serious security problems with frequent clashes between Iranian police and drug dealers and bandits.

A senior police official, Ahmadreza Radan, warned that Iran had a right to "pursue rebels inside Pakistan territory ... Iran has limited patience. Instability in Sistan-Baluchestan is rooted abroad (where) there is lack of will to confront rebels."

He said 40 people "who wanted to create instability" in Zahedan had been arrested there since the latest bombing.

Iran is grappling with ethnic and religious tensions in the southeastern province and authorities have responded to attacks by Sunni rebels with a spate of hangings. Human rights groups and the West have condemned the hangings.

Iran rejects allegations by rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.