Iran blames U.S., U.K. and Pakistan for suicide bombing

After a suicide bomb attack in Sistan-Baluchistan province in Southeast Iran that killed six commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and 37 other people, the U.S. the U.K. and Pakistan have all been accused of complicity in the bombing.

The Sunni group Jundallah ("Soldiers of God"), known also as the Popular Resistance Movement of Iran, that has reportedly claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. The Guardian reports the attack was carried out by an individual called Abdol Vahed Mohammadi Saravani because of what has been described as "the constant crime of the regime in Baluchistan." The governments of the U.S., the U.K. and Pakistan have been accused too of some form of involvement in the attack. Sistan-Baluchistan is, confirms the BBC, an area of Shia-dominated Iran populated by mainly Sunni Muslims and Sunday's bombing is the not the first attack carried out in Iran by Jundallah, a group supposedly with links to either al-Qaeda or the Pakistani Taliban. According to Sky News 13 members of Jundallah were hanged in July for their part in an attack in May on a Shia mosque in Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan, which killed 25 people. The town of Pishin was the scene of Sunday's bombing which has led the Revolutionary Guards, they lost General Noor Ali Shooshtari, deputy commander of their ground force, and chief provincial commander Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh in the blast, to declare that "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain" supported in some way the "terrorists" responsible for the deaths of 43 people and injuries to many others. In addition Ali Larijani, speaker in the Iranian parliament, is quoted by the BBC as saying that "US action" was a factor in the attack, which saw the bomber detonate a belt that he was wearing. Both the U.S. and U.K have strongly denied any involvement in the bombing, a statement from the U.K. Foreign Office saying that it "condemns the terrorist attack in the Province of Sistan and Baluchistan in Iran and the sad loss of life which it caused". US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also commented on the attack and the allegations made by officials in Iran, saying:

We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false

However Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, certainly not a man to turn down an opportunity to blame the U.S. and the West for unrest in his country, has on this occasion turned his attention to Pakistan, a country which shares a border with Sistan-Baluchistan. Fars, a semi-official news agency in Iran, reports that President Ahmadinejad has said:

We were informed that some security agents in Pakistan are co-operating with the main elements of this terrorist incident. We regard it as our right to demand these criminals from them. We ask the Pakistani government not to delay any longer in the apprehension of the main elements in this terrorist attack

Pakistan has, like the U.S. and U.K., refuted the suggestion that it somehow offered support to the suicide bomber and/or Jundallah. One of its senior diplomats in Tehran was summoned by the Iranian authorities, who "protested against the use of Pakistani territory by the terrorists and rebels against the Islamic Republic of Iran". The Revolutionary Guards have sworn to avenge the deaths of six of their leaders in a region in which the Guardian states 400 Iranian troops have lost their lives as Jundallah mounts its campaign against the discrimination it alleges is perpetrated against the Sunni Muslims of Sistan-Baluchistan. Accusations made by Iran against the West regarding Sunday's attack will not necessarily make for a positive atmosphere when talks on Iran's nuclear program resume in Vienna on Monday.