Iran suicide bombings kill 39 during ceremony

Two suicide bomb attacks outside a mosque killed 39 people and wounded more than 100 during a Shi'ite religious ceremony in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar on Wednesday, local media reported.

Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite television channel reported that Jundollah, a Sunni Muslim rebel group, claimed responsibility for the bombings outside the Imam Hussein Mosque in Chahbahar, near Iran's border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The report could not be confirmed independently but the  poor province of Sistan-Baluchistan has been the scene of unrest with the mainly Sunni population claiming discrimination by the Shi'ite authorities.

"At least 39 people were martyred after two suicide bombings targeted Shi'ite mourners in front of a mosque in the town of Chahbahar," Fariborz Ayati Firouzabadi, head of the Coroner's office in the province.

The bombings killed many children and women, who attended a Shi'ite religious ceremony to commemorate the death of prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein, state television reported, adding that the death toll was expected to increase.

Iran has faced a string of blasts in past months, including two in June that killed 27 people in the same province.
Jundollah had also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Bombings and clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and drug traffickers have increased in recent years in the area.

Iran says Jundollah has links to Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda and has accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of supporting the group to stir instability in southeast Iran, home to Iran''s Sunni minority. The three countries deny backing it.

"America and the Zionist regime (Israel) try to create discord among Shi'ites and Sunnis by orchestrating such bombings," said Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. "They should know that such measures will not go unanswered."

The United States and Israel have not ruled out a military strike against Iran if diplomacy fails to persuade Iran to halt its sensitive nuclear work, which the West fears is aimed at building bombs. Tehran denies the claim.

Mahmoud Mozafar, head of the province's Red Crescent, said his team had received a number of threats before the ceremony.
"We were on alert in the past days because of some anonymous threats," he told Reuters by telephone.

He said that according to his information more than 36 people were killed.

"Three terrorists entered Iran from a neighbouring country ... One of them blew himself, another one was killed by police and the other was arrested while trying to flee Iran," an unnamed intelligence ministry official told the IRIB website.

Iranian leaders reject allegations by Western human rights groups and Jundollah that the Islamic Republic discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Ethnic Baluch, many with tribal links to their restive kin in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, make up an estimated one to three percent of Iran's 77 million people.