Suicide Bomber in Iran Kills 29
By Robert Tait
The Guardian
Iran’s military suffered a heavy blow today when a suicide bomber killed at least 29 people in the country’s volatile south-east, including several Revolutionary Guard commanders.
The victims included the guards’ deputy commander, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, thought to be the most senior member killed in recent years.
Local media said at least 28 had been wounded in the bombing at a conference hall in Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchistan, Iran’s poorest province, as Revolutionary Guard commanders met local tribal elders.
Conflicting reports said an undetermined number of commanders had died. Initial accounts put the number at six, but Hosein Ali Shahriari, MP for Zahedan, the provincial capital, told the semi-official news agency ILNA, that at least 20 commanders had died.
Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, chief commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, was also killed. It was Iran’s highest military death toll since the end of the 1980-1988 Iraq war, the conservative website Tabnak said.
Officials immediately blamed Britain and the US as rescue workers sifted through wreckage searching for survivors.
“Surely foreign elements, particularly those linked to the global arrogance [regime code for America and Britain], were involved in this attack,” a guards statement read out on state TV said.
Suspicion also centred on Jundullah, a militant Sunni group that has claimed responsibility for previous bombings.
Official reports were confused. The official news agency, IRNA, reported that an attacker with explosives blew himself up. The English-language state satellite channel, Press TV, said there were two simultaneous explosions: one at the meeting and another targeting an additional convoy of guards en route to the gathering.
The blast appeared to be a direct challenge to the Revolutionary Guards.
The elite force – seen as the guardian of Iran’s Islamic revolution – took over direct responsibility for Sistan-Baluchistan’s security this year after a spate of attacks.
The province has been a centre of recent unrest after Jundallah took up arms on behalf of the local Baluchi Sunni population, which it claims suffers discrimination at the hands of Iran’s Shia rulers.
In May, the group, led by Abdulmalek Rigi, claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in Zahedan, the provincial capital, that killed 25. Iran later executed 13 members that it claimed were involved in the bombing. Iran has previously linked Jundallah to al-Qaida and claimed it was receiving American backing, something the US denies. Other sources have linked the organisation to the Taliban in Pakistan.
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