Updated on
Summary
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque in the Iranian city of Chabahar Wednesday, killing 38 people and wounding more than 50 as Shiites marked the climax of Ashura, a Red Crescent official said. An individual walked up to some Red Crescent ambulances and blew himself up, the official, Mahmoud Mozafar, told the ISNA news agency. State television said three bombers took part in the attack in the main square outside the Imam Hossein mosque in the southeastern city. One blew himself up, the second's explosives failed to detonate and he was wounded by police, and the third has been arrested, the television reported. Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi told the official IRNA news agency that there had been two explosions, one after the other. The bomb attack came on the eve of the final day of Ashura, one of the high points of the Shiite calendar when large crowds of worshippers gather in mosques across Iran. Unlike most of Iran, Sistan-Baluchestan province where Chabahar is situated has a significant Sunni community and has seen persistent unrest in recent years by the Sunni militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God). There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's bombing but over the past decade, Jundallah claimed many deadly attacks on Iranian security forces as well as assaults that have led to civilian deaths. In July, it claimed responsibility for an attack on the Grand Mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan that targeted members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and killed 28 people. Last month, the US officially designated Jundallah a foreign terrorist organization, drawing a cautious welcome from Iran which had previously accused Washington of supporting the group.
