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Deputy Commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces was killed in the attack. (IRNA photo) |
TEHREN — Several senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards were killed on Sunday, October 18, in a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran, with authorities pointing the fingers at foreign elements backed by the US.
"In this terrorist act, General Nur-Ali Shushtari, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, General Mohammad-Zadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchestan province, the Guards' commander for the town of Iranshahr and the commander of the Amir al-Momenin unit died," the Fars news agency reported.
The attack took place when officers from the Guards were preparing to stage a meeting between local leaders of Shiite and Sunni communities.
"A man wearing an explosives vest blew himself up inside the meeting," the official IRNA news agency said.
Some local tribal heads, several senior officers of the Guards and many civilians were killed in the huge explosion.
“We express our condolences for their martyrdom," Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani told an open session of the legislature.
In May 2007, 13 elite Revolutionary Guards members were killed in a similar attack in the Sistan-Baluchestan province.
The Revolutionary Guards is an elite force seen as fiercely loyal to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
It handles security in sensitive border areas.
Foreign Elements
Speaker Larijani said the attackers wanted to destabilize the situation in Sistan-Baluchestan.
"The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province."
Though no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in years, the military blamed elements with links to the US.
"Foreign elements linked to the United States [are] involved in the terrorist attack," Iranian TV quoted Revolutionary Guards officials as saying.
"The finger of accusation is directly pointed at the Jundollah group," Iranian English-language Press TV said, citing authorities and experts.
Iran has previously accused the shadowy Sunni group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) of launching regular attacks in the province, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It accuses the US of backing the group to seed instability, an accusation denied by Washington.
Tehran has also linked Jundollah to Al-Qaeda network.
Jundollah itself says it is fighting for the rights of the Sunni minority in Shiite-majority Iran.
In May, the group claimed a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 25 people in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan.
Thirteen members of the group were convicted and hanged in July.
Most people in Sistan-Baluchestan are Sunni Muslims and ethnic Baluchis.
Iran rejects allegations by Western rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.
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