Iran Blames US-backed 'Terrorists' for Bomb Attacks

AFP, Channel News Asia:

Iran on Sunday blamed "terrorists" and Arab separatists sheltered by US troops in neighbouring Iraq for a series of deadly bomb blasts in the capital and the southwestern city of Ahvaz. READ MORE

A top national security official, Ali Agha Mohammadi, told AFP that an ethnic Arab separatist group had claimed responsibility for a quartet of bomb blasts in Ahvaz, that killed at least eight people and wounded 75.

The attacks came just days before the Islamic republic's presidential election.

"The terrorists of Ahvaz infiltrated Iran from the region of Basra" in southern Iraq, Mohammadi said. "These terrorists have been trained under the umbrella of the Americans in Iraq."

He said Iran suspected British troops based across the border in southern Iraq might also have links to the group, but added: "We are not certain".

Later Sunday, another bomb attack rocked a busy square in the capital, killing two people according to an updated toll given by the official IRNA news agency.

"We call on the Americans and the British to condemn these attacks and hand over the terrorists in Iraq. Sadly, they have so far not said anything," Mohammadi said.

Iran's main armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, are also based across the border in Iraq.

The U.S. is almost certainly, not behind these explosions. The U.S. Administration hasrecently supported the non-violent civil disobedience used in other countries around the world that have brought down totalitarian regimes in their countries.