By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor
In this television image, Iranian medical personnel take an injured person to a medical facility following the bombing on Sunday, October 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Press TV, via APTN)
The Sunday morning attack came a day before Iranian and Western officials were due to meet in Vienna for further talks on the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programs.
A Sunni militant organization claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Sunni-Shi’ite “unity gathering” in Sistan-Balochistan, Iran’s poorest province adjacent to the border with Pakistan.
The group, Jundullah (“soldiers of Allah”), claims to represent the interests of Balochs (Baluchs) – a mostly Sunni minority accounting for around two million of Iran’s 70 million predominantly Shi’ite population.
Iranian media said a man wearing an explosive belt had detonated his charge at the meeting, killed five IRGC officers, regional tribal leaders and others. Some reports said a second blast around the same time had targeted an IRGC convoy nearby.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to hit back at the perpetrators and, as it has done after previous attacks in the southeast, Tehran also accused the U.S., Britain and Pakistan of links to violence aimed at provoking ethnic and religious instability.
The Iranian armed forces issued a statement saying the bombers were supported by “the Great Satan America and its ally, Britain,” and vowing revenge in the not distant future, the semi-official news agency Fars reported.
The IRGC in a statement accused “world arrogance” – the United States – and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani charged that the attack was “a sign of the United States’ animosity toward our country.”
The ISNA news agency quoted him as saying this contradicted President Obama’s position about offering a hand to Iran’s leaders. “Mr. Obama has said he will extend his hand towards Iran, but with this terrorist action he has burned his hand.”
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a brief statement that claims of U.S. involvement were “completely false.”
“We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives,” he said.
The foreign ministry also summoned a Pakistani diplomat, charging that the attack had been launched from the territory of the neighboring country.
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