27 killed in Iran mosque attacks claimed by Sunni rebels

Iran was yesterday probing twin suicide bombings in a crowded Shiite mosque which slaughtered 27 people in an attack a shadowy Sunni rebel group said was to avenge the execution of its militant leader.

Thursday night's bombings, which reportedly targeted members of Iran's elite defence force, the Revolutionary Guards, struck the Jamia mosque in southeastern Zahedan.

It drew condemnation from the European Union, the United Nations and US President Barack Obama.

The bombers detonated their payloads as worshippers were celebrating the birthday of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, on a day also annually observed as the Guards' Day.

The attack "has left 27 people martyred and 270 wounded," Health Minister Marziah Vahid Dastjerdi told the Mehr news agency, adding that 11 of the wounded were in critical conditions.

Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi said members of the Guards were among the dead and wounded but gave no details.

Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor general of Sistan-Baluchestan, the province of which Zahedan is the capital, said Iran was "investigating who was behind the attack," which was claimed yesterday by Sunni rebel group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) as revenge for the hanging of its veteran leader Abdolmalek Rigi.

Mr Rigi was executed on June 20 after Iranian warplanes intercepted a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan and security forces seized him.

"Jundallah announces to the people of Baluchestan and Iran that tonight (Thursday) two of its sons, in an unmatched operation striking at the heart of the Guards who had gathered in a mosque in Zahedan to celebrate Guards Day, were able to send more than a hundred of the Guards to hell," the group said in a statement posted on its http://junbish.blogspot.com website.

Zahedan has been repeatedly hit by attacks blamed on Jundallah, which has been fighting for nearly a decade to secure rights for ethnic Sunni Baluchis who form a significant proportion of the population in the province.

The group said Thursday's bombings were carried out by two of its members, Abdulbasit Rigi and Mohammad Rigi.

"In the first phase of the operation Abdulbasit Rigi blew himself up among tens of Guards," the statement said.