Iran officials blame US for mosque blast

Agence France-Presse

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"Three people involved with the terrorist incident were arrested," said Jalal Sayah, deputy governor of Sistan-Baluchestan, the province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan where the attack took place. "According to the information obtained they were hired by America and the agents of the arrogance," Sayah told the Fars news agency. Officials usually use the term "global arrogance" to refer to Iran arch-foe the United States.

Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsooli also pointed the finger toward the United States and Israel. "Enemies try to influence the election by terror just as they did in Zahedan yesterday," the Mehr news agency quoted him as saying. "The terror agents are neither Sunni nor Shiite, but American and Israeli seeking a Sunni-Shiite divide."

The attack during evening prayers at the Amir al-Momenin mosque in Zahedan, the restive capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, wounded 125 others. On Thursday, Iran was in mourning to commemorate the death of Fatima Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. Local Martyrs' Foundation released a list of 24 male victims who had been identified of the 25 killed, the official IRNA news agency reported. Twenty-three were Iranians and one was an Afghan. One other victim had still not been identified.

"This catastrophe was a suicide terrorist attack," Zahedan MP Payman Foroozesh told ILNA news agency. Provincial justice chief Ebrahim Hamidi said the attacker "had stood in the last line of male worshippers during the evening prayer, carried out the bombing and died." Hamidi told ISNA news agency that one person had been arrested for the bombing and "charged with armed opposition and acting against national security. But his motive cannot be presented for the moment."

He said most attacks in the restive province were carried out by a Sunni rebel group headed by ring leader Abdolmalek Rigi, but he could not confirm whether the group could be blamed for Thursday's bombing. In recent years, Sistan-Baluchestan has been the scene of a deadly insurgency by Sunni rebels of the Jundullah, or Soldiers of God in English, group, headed by Rigi, which is strongly opposed to the government of predominantly Shiite Iran.