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Tuesday 2 June 2009

Telegraph: Three hanged for mosque bombing in Iran








The men were convicted of being "mohreb" (enemies of God) and accused of belonging to a terrorist group allegedly backed by the United States, which strongly denied involvement.

The blast at Thursday evening prayers in the Shia mosque, two weeks before crucial presidential elections, also injured 125, making it the worst loss of life in an attack in Iran since the war with Saddam Hussein ended two decades ago.

The city is the capital of a troubled province on the borders of both Pakistan and Afghanistan, home to a separatist insurgency supported by many from Iran's Baluch minority, and a major trafficking route for opium smugglers.
The men were also accused of being involved in a bomb attack in the city in 2007 which killed 13 revolutionary guards.

Jalal Sayyah, from the governor's office of the province, said: "The terrorists, who were equipped by America in one of our neighbouring countries, carried out this criminal act in their efforts to create religious conflict and fear and to influence the presidential election."
After they were executed, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a statement demanding that investigators quickly find and punish foreigners who he said were behind the bombing, although he did not mention any nation by name.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied emphatically that Washington was behind the attack, which it condemned.

He said: "We do not sponsor any form of terrorism in Iran and we continue to work with the international community to try to prevent any attacks against innocent civilians anywhere."

Iranian authorities have blamed a shadowy organisation called Jundollah for attacks in Zahedan. The group claims to fight for the rights of Iran's Sunni minority, but Iranians accuse it of being linked to al-Qaeda and backed by the United States.

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