A bombing outside a mosque in Iran's southeastern city of Chabahar killed at least 38 people, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency news agency said, citing hospital officials.
Police have identified two attackers who detonated explosives before they could be arrested, IRNA cited local Governor Ali Bateni as saying. A suspect described as "the main agent" behind today's bombing is in custody, he said.
Another 100 people were wounded in the blast at the Imam Hossein Mosque in Sistan-Baluchistan province. The attack occurred as worshippers were marking the death of the third imam of Shia Muslims, Hossein Ibn Ali, IRNA said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
"Equipment and facilities" seized in connection with the blasts link the suspect to "advanced intelligence services of the region and the US," IRNA reported, citing Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Ali Adbollahi.
Iran has blamed the United States, Israel, and the UK for previous mosque attacks, accusing them of supporting the Sunni Muslim Jundallah group to promote an insurgency by ethnic minorities and destabilise the Shia-led government. Washington denies any links to the group and in November the State Department added Jundallah to a US list of foreign terrorist organisations. Israel and the UK have also have denied the allegations.
Jundallah, Arabic for "soldiers of God," has taken responsibility for other attacks in the province, which borders Afghanistan and is one of Iran's poorest areas. Those include twin bombings at a mosque in the city of Zahedan on July 15th that left at least 27 people dead, and one at a mosque in the same city in May last year that killed 21.
Drug traffickers and smugglers are also active along the barren frontier area of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan and have launched attacks on security forces.
Agencies