Suicide attack targets Iran military corps

TEHRAN, Iran - In a brazen attack on Iran's military elite yesterday, a suicide bomber killed six Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and at least 36 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistan border.

The area is known for drug-running and religious extremism.

According to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, the assault was carried out by a lone man who disguised himself in tribal dress and detonated an explosives belt at a gymnasium in the city of Pishin in Sistan-Baluchistan, a harsh land plagued by heroin smuggling and ethnic animosities.

At least 28 people were wounded, and images of carnage were broadcast across a stunned nation.

State media said the Sunni Muslim militant group Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which operates along the Iran-Pakistan border, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The organization, part of a regional Sunni insurgency in Shiite-dominated Iran, has for years kidnapped and killed Iranian soldiers and police officers.

The bombing highlighted the increasing dangers near the intersection of Iran and its two troubled neighbors - Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are battling a resurgent Taliban, and Pakistan, where the military just launched a major offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Jundallah has its own agenda in Iran, but its ideology and proximity to the other militant groups prompted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to caution Pakistan about cross-border violence.

"We have heard that certain officials in Pakistan cooperate with main agents of these terrorist attacks in eastern parts of the country. It is our right to ask [for extradition] of criminals," Ahmadinejad said last night, shortly after Iranian news agencies reported that Tehran had summoned the Pakistani charge d'affairs to the Foreign Ministry.

IRNA reported that those killed included two Revolutionary Guard top commanders: Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, commander of the group's ground force, and Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, a chief commander for the region.

Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Shooshtari was a follower of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was then a rebellious mullah and now is Iran's supreme leader. Shooshtari rose through the guard ranks and in March was appointed to oversee the Sistan-Baluchistan province.

The attack came as the world has been focused on Iran's controversial nuclear-development program and on widespread protests over vote fraud in Ahmadinejad's June reelection victory.

The Baluchistan bomber, dressed in a loose white robe, struck during what was to be a reconciliation meeting between Shiite and Sunni tribesmen to calm sectarian tensions in southeast Iran.

The region is a tangle of disenchanted clans and sects that say they have been persecuted for generations by Iran's Shiite majority.

Jundallah and other groups pose no serious threat to the central Iranian government but they are capable of deadly ambushes against state and Shiite institutions, including a bombing at a mosque in May that left more than 20 people dead.

The 120,000-strong Revolutionary Guard controls Iran's missile program, guards its nuclear facilities, and has its own ground, naval, and air units.

The guard led the blanket crackdown on dissidents after Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection. But the attack yesterday appeared to have no link to the political showdowns.

"It was a measure to show that IRGC is susceptible and penetrable. A suicide bomber infiltrated a gathering that was supposedly held under tight security because of the presence of the high-ranking IRGC commanders," said Mashaallah Shamsul Waezin, a political analyst.

The Revolutionary Guard and hard-line politicians blamed "global arrogance" for the bombing and said the U.S. was funding and arming Jundallah and other militant groups to overthrow the Ahmadinejad government.

The accusations came as officials from the U.S. and other world powers prepared to meet in Vienna today with Iranian delegates over Tehran's nuclear development program.