Jundullah claims Iran attack on mosque

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday was probing twin suicide bombings that rebel group Jundullah 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 Zahedan, a southeastern city ravaged by a fierce Sunni insurgency for the past decade.

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 Friday by Sunni rebel group, Jundallah (Soldiers of God), as revenge for the hanging of its veteran leader Abdolmalek Rigi.

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.

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.

“After intelligence, security service and military personnel surrounded the area, Mohammad Rigi blew himself up, sending to hell tens of others,” the statement added.

The bombers detonated their payloads as worshippers were celebrating the birthday of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2010.