Blasts at Iran mosque kill 15
Explosions at a mosque in the southeastern Iranian provincial capital of Zahedan on Thursday killed at least 15 people and injured more, Iranian news agencies reported.
The semiofficial Fars News Agency quoted Interior Ministry official Ali Abdollahi as saying the attack was carried out by one or more suicide bombers and that at least 22 people were injured in addition to those killed.
Hossein-Ali Shahriari, a member of parliament from Zahedan, told the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency that “around 20 people were martyred and 73 injured” in the attack, which took place after an evening religious ceremony at the city’s Jameh Mosque.
Abdollahi told Fars that members of the Revolutionary Guard were among those killed in the attack. He said the second bomb went off as rescue workers gathered to tend to those wounded in the first attack.
The militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack.
Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, is at the center of a conflict between the Iranian government and Jundallah, which draws support from the ethnic Baluch minority straddling Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Iran recently hanged Abdulmalak Rigi, leader of the group, in an effort to quell the insurgency. Jundallah, which shares an Islamist ideology with Al Qaeda, quickly appointed a new leader and vowed to continue its fight.
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