Bomb blast kills Iran's top Guards

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-19 07:45

TEHERAN: A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people yesterday, including six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders, in Iran's turbulent southeast, in an attack blamed on foreign-backed elements, Iranian media reported.

State media said a local rebel group was suspected of staging the attack, the worst on the elite Revolutionary Guards in recent years, which injured another 40 people at a meeting of tribal chiefs.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered authorities to swiftly track down and punish those behind the suicide attack.

Ahmadinejad said "the criminals who committed ... crimes against humanity ... will be seriously dealt with", the official IRNA reported.

The Guards accused "foreign elements" linked to the United States of involvement and state television also pointed the finger at Britain, another traditional foe of Iran.

State television suggested that a Sunni rebel group called Jundollah (God's soldiers) - linked by some analysts to the Taliban in neighboring Pakistan - was the likely suspect for the attack.

"The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body during a gathering of tribal heads," state Press TV said in a headline, adding that civilians and tribal leaders were also among the victims.

Teheran accuses the US of backing Jundollah to create instability in the country, a charge that Washington denies.

State broadcaster IRIB said the attack occurred in the morning at the gates of a conference hall in the city of Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchestan. The province is the scene of frequent clashes between security forces, Sunni rebels and drug traffickers.

Two high-ranking commanders were among the dead: the deputy head of the Guards' ground forces, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, and the Guards' commander in Sistan-Baluchestan province, General Mohammadzadeh, news agencies reported. Shooshtari was also a senior official of the Guard's elite Qods force.

Citing authorities and experts, a presenter of English-language Press TV said "the finger of accusation is directly pointed at the Jundollah group", referring to ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents who have been blamed for previous attacks in the region.

Washington yesterday condemned the attack, calling it "an act of terrorism".

"Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false," said US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.

The Revolutionary Guards is an elite force seen as fiercely loyal to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. The 120,000-strong Revolutionary Guard controls Iran's missile program and has its own ground, naval and air units.

The British Foreign Office did not directly comment on the Iranian accusation but said in a statement that Britain "condemns the terrorist attack in the province of Sistan-Baluchestan in Iran and the sad loss of life which it caused".

"Terrorism is abhorrent wherever it occurs," the statement said, expressing sympathy for the victims and their families.

Jundollah, which claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque in May that killed 25 people, says it is fighting for the rights of Iran's minority Sunnis.

Jundollah is made up of Sunnis from the Baluchi ethnic minority, which can also be found in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The group has carried out bombings, kidnappings and other attacks against Iranian soldiers and other forces in recent years.

Predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Iran has also linked Jundollah to the Sunni Islamist Al Qaida network.

Reuters - AP