Iran accuses US, Britain for links to group reponsible for Shiraz mosque blast

Tehran: Iranian officials accused the US and Britain of having links to a group responsible for a mosque explosion last month that killed 14 people and injured more than 200, the official news agency reported on Thursday.

Immediately after the April 12 blast in the southern city of Shiraz, Iranian officials said it was caused by a homemade bomb.

The following day, the government changed the account and said it was caused by ammunition leftover from a recent military exhibition in the mosque.

But Thursday's report by the official news agency IRNA again suggested the explosion was an attack, not an accident.

"The group that planted the bomb had been in contact with some western countries, particularly Britain and the United States," IRNA quoted Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying.

Ejehi told reporters late on Wednesday that Iranian security agents have detained six suspects in the explosion.

Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi also suggested that foreign countries were somehow involved in the mosque explosion, calling the explosion “sabotage and a plot by enemies of the Iranian nation''.

Neither official named any particular group as responsible for the attack and no one has claimed responsibility.