Tehran: An Iranian news agency said that police have arrested 40 suspects after the devastating twin bombings of a mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan. An investigation has been launched into the attack.
Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, Iran's deputy police chief, told the Fars agency on Saturday that the suspects "intended to create insecurity in the city of Zahedan after the bombing."
The blasts killed at least 28 people outside a mosque Thursday. A Sunni insurgency called Jundallah claimed responsibility.
General Radan also said that two policemen were among the dead.
Earlier reports said members of the elite Revolutionary Guards were also killed.
Jundallah, which says it is fighting for the rights of the mainly Sunni Baluchi minority, said the attack was revenge for the execution of its leader Abdul Malek Rigi in June.
The powerful bombs exploded near the city of Zahedan's Grand Mosque, scattering body parts around the site, and Jundallah said they were carried out by relatives of Rigi and were aimed at a Revolutionary Guards gathering.
"The group said the suicide attacks were carried out by Abdul Baset Rigi and Mohammad Rigi ... and warned of more operations to come," Dubai-based Al Arabiya said.
Guards targeted
Senior lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi blamed Washington for the attacks, saying the United States should be held accountable for the "terrorist acts in Zahedan" because of its support for Jundallah, the official IRNA news agency said.
"In the two explosions in Zahedan at least 28 people were killed and over 169 were injured," Mansour Shakiba, head of the Medical School at Sistan-Baluchestan province, told the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Iran's deputy Interior Minister in charge of security, Ali Abdollahi, said "a number of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed and injured," the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Iran announced three days of public mourning in the province, Irna said.
Iran is locked in a dispute with the United States and its allies over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West says is designed to produce nuclear weapons and Iranian officials say aims to generate power.
Predominantly Shiite Iran arrested Rigi in February, four months after Jundallah claimed responsibility for a bombing which killed dozens of people, including 15 members of the Guards. It was the deadliest attack in Iran since the 1980s.
Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province which shares a border with Pakistan. The province faces serious security problems and there are frequent clashes between police and drug dealers and bandits.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks "in the strongest possible terms."
US condemnation
"This attack, along with the recent attacks in Uganda, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Algeria, underscores the global community's need to work together to combat terrorist organisations that threaten the lives of innocent civilians all around the world," Clinton said in a statement.
Iran says Jundallah has links to Al Qaida and in the past has accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of backing Jundallah to create instability in southeast Iran.
All three countries have denied this, and Jundallah denies having any links with Al Qaida.
"Confessions of Abdul Malek Rigi prove that America, Israel and some European countries are directly involved in the attacks," said Guards official Yadollah Javadi, Fars reported.
UAE condemns criminal act
The UAE has vehemently condemned the criminal act which targeted a mosque in Iran's southeastern city of Zahedan on Thursday night, killing and wounding scores of people.
''The UAE condemns in the strongest terms this terrorist act and affirms its full solidarity and stand with Iran in its efforts to face these criminal acts,'' Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a statement Friday.
Shaikh Abdullah offered heart-felt condolences to the families and relatives of the innocent victims and wished speedy recovery to those wounded in the explosion.
