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Suicide bomber kills 20 in attack on Iran Guards
A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up at a meeting of senior military officers of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps in south-eastern Iran today, killing about 20 people and wounding another 40, news agencies said. The attack, the deadliest in Iran in recent years, occurred in the city of Pisheen, near the border with Pakistan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, Fars and ILNA news agencies said."A man wearing an explosives vest blew himself up inside the meeting," the official IRNA news agency said. Iran's state broadcaster said the attack occurred at around 8am today (3.30pm AEDT) in front of a local gymnasium. Fars said the strike took place when officers from the Guards were preparing to stage a meeting between local leaders of Shiite and Sunni communities. Some local tribal heads were also among the slain, media reports said. "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 news agency reported. Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani confirmed the officers' death in an announcement to parliament which was broadcast on television. "The goal of the terrorists is to disturb the security of the Sistan-Baluchestan province," he told parliament. "It shows they do not want to have economic progress in this region. But certainly the Guards will act with more force to establish security in the region." Iran has previously accused shadowy Sunni group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) of launching regular attacks in the province, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The mostly Shiite Sistan-Baluchestan is home to a sizeable Baluch minority which adheres to Sunni Islam. Jundallah is strongly opposed to the Government of predominantly Shiite Iran.
Three commanders from the adjacent province of Kerman were among those killed, according to Fars news agency.
Controlling the scrubland and arid hills along the southeastern borders is a huge challenge that has been out of Iran's reach. Drug traffickers ferry opium and other narcotics through the cross-border badlands—a key source of income for the Taliban in Afghanistan and the ethnic Baluchi tribes that straddle the three-nation region and include members of Jundallah. Iran has pleaded for more international help to cut off the drug routes and criminal gangs. Iran also has accused Jundallah of receiving support from al-Qaida and the Taliban. "There is no evidence of outside help for Jundallah from wider militant networks," said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "It's a homegrown group that moves across the borders within fellow Baluchi tribes. It is very hard to control the border." In an attempt to boost security in the region, Iran in April put the Revolutionary Guard directly in control of the Sistan-Baluchistan Province in Iran's southeastern corner. In Quetta, Pakistan, police official Akbar Sanjrani said Iran had closed at least one border crossing. He said Iranian authorities did not give a reason for blocking the route, but Sanjrani speculated it was related to the bombing. Posted by: tipper 2009-10-18 |
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