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Iran Blamed For Herat Blast
KABUL, May 5 (News Agencies) - Afghanistan's Taliban regime Saturday blamed Iranian hardliners as the death toll from a blast targeting an exiled Iranian Sunni Muslim cleric rose to 10, officials said.
A foreign ministry statement said elements that were "oppressing the Iranian people" were trying to undermine the "process of normalization" between Iran and Afghanistan.
A powerful bomb exploded outside a mosque in the western city of Herat on Friday, killing eight people immediately, including exiled Iranian Islamic scholar Maulvi Mohammad Musa and another Iranian national who was believed to the bomber, officials in Herat said. Two others later died of their injuries.
"This terrorist action once again shows that some circles in Iran, with resort to terror and physical annihilation of individuals beyond Iranian borders, are upholders of international terrorism."
They are ignorant that such acts can extensively damage relations between the two countries, the statement said.
"The circles upholding terrorism ... not only attacked the mutual normalization process but are also trying to endanger relations between the two Muslim nations with this extreme move, inciting religious sentiments," the statement said.
It called on the Iranian people to vote out such elements in the upcoming elections in Iran.
The blast in which eight people were killed on the spot, triggered violent protests in the city and Herat governor, Maulvi Khairullah Khairkhwa, immediately blamed Iranian agents.
Khairkhwa said 30 people were injured, two of whom died later in the hospital.
Angry mobs set fire to the Iranian consulate in Herat and mosques of the minority Shiite community in the city. The building was partially damaged.
The statement said the blast came after an Iranian goodwill delegation's visit to Kabul late last month to pave the way for high-level Iran-Taliban talks on opening new border crossing points.
The Iranian delegation distributed "significant" quantities of relief goods to Afghans displaced by the current drought and war, the foreign ministry said.
Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal earlier said it was too early to blame Iran as investigations were underway into the blast.
"We are still collecting evidences. The authorities are holding meetings," he said.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said staff of the Iranian mission left for home Saturday amid tension in Herat.
It quoted Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel as saying that Iran had told his ministry that the consulate would resume its function after the situation in Herat returns to normal.
AIP said eight Iranian diplomats and consulate employees crossed the Islam Qala border check post Saturday.
Taliban security guards escorted the Iranian diplomats to the border, it said adding that Iran had temporarily closed the consulate.
Musa was Imam (prayer leader) of a Sunni mosque in the Iranian border city of Mashhad, which the Iranian authorities demolished to build a park, he said.
People in Herat always get full information about any damage to Sunni mosques in the Shiite-dominated Iran, Jamal said adding that Musa's "martyrdom is a big grief."
Musa migrated to Herat before the Taliban Islamic militia seized Kabul in 1996.
Iran has condemned the blast and attack on its consulate in Herat, which it blamed on "subversive foreigners".
"We strongly condemn the attack against the consulate, which caused serious material damage ... but no casualties" among the staff, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said late Friday.
Asefi also rejected allegations of Iran's involvement in the blast.
Iran, which does not recognize the Taliban regime, is a frequent critic of the Sunni militia.
Taliban officials often accuse Tehran of backing Afghan opposition groups in the country's central and northeastern regions.
Both Iran and Pakistan are major trading partners of Afghanistan.
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