Several arrested over blast in Iranian town

Tehran: Iranian security forces arrested several suspects over a bomb explosion in the southeast of the country, the semi-official Fars news agency said yesterday.

Police and insurgents clashed after the explosion at a school in the city of Zahedan on Friday. The blast caused no casualties, the agency said on Friday.

"Some people suspected of being behind the Friday bombing have been arrested," a local military official told Fars.

"The armed bandits, in their new crime, exploded a percussion bomb and fled the scene," Zahedan governor Hassan Ali Nouri was quoted by Fars as saying.

He linked the bomb to the "massive participation of people in the funeral of victims of Wednesday's terrorist act".

A booby-trapped car blew up a bus owned by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 31 others.

Responsibility for that attack was claimed by a shadowy Sunni group, Jundallah (God's soldiers), which Iran has said is linked to Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaida network. Tehran has blamed Jundallah for past killings in the area bordering Pakistan.

Trial

It was unclear if the same group was behind the second blast in Zahedan. Fars said that five arrested suspects accused of Wednesday's bombing would be put on trial yesterday. "The court session will start at 1800 local time in Zahedan. It will be an open court," it said.

Iran has accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in sensitive border areas in an attempt to destabilise the country.

"International organisations can send their representatives to investigate the documents showing involvement of America and Britain in the blasts," Fars quoted Sultan Ali Mir, a senior local official, as saying.

The claim comes at a time when the United States has accused Iranian groups of involvement in the war in Iraq.

Iranian officials accuse the United States of trying to create a crisis in the Islamic state through ethnic divisions. "Explosive devices and arsenals used in Zahedan's Wednesday blast are American made," Mir said.