TEHRAN (Agencies)
Iran blamed the West and Israel on Saturday for twin suicide bombings which killed at least 27 people, despite condemnation of the attack by the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.
Iranian police, meanwhile, arrested 40 people for "creating disturbances" in the southeastern city of Zahedan where the bombers struck on Thursday, the Mehr news agency reported.
"This blind terrorist act was carried out by the mercenaries of the world arrogance (the Western powers)," state television's website quoted Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi as saying.
"The agents of this crime were trained and equipped beyond our borders and then came into Iran," Abdollahi said.
" The agents of this crime were trained and equipped beyond our borders and then came into Iran "
Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi"Those who planned this crime and equipped those who carried it out should know that they are responsible for this incident," he added.
Two suicide bombers killed at least 28 people, including elite Revolutionary Guards, at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
The Sunni Muslim rebel group Jundollah said it set off the bombs on Thursday, telling Al Arabiya television in an email it had carried them out in retaliation for Iran's execution in June of the group's leader, Abdolmalek Rigi.
"The group said the suicide attacks were carried out by Abdolbaset Rigi and Mohammad Rigi ... and warned of more operations to come," Al Arabiya said.
Jundollah says it fights for the rights of Iran's Sunni Muslim minority.
Tehran has long charged that Washington has provided support to the group as part of efforts to destabilize the Islamic regime by fomenting unrest among ethnic minorities in sensitive border areas.
"Outrageous terrorist attacks"
" The terrorist act by the Zionists had a number of objectives, including creating division between Shiites and Sunnis "
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad NajjarBut on Friday U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the "outrageous terrorist attacks," while U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon blasted a "senseless act of terrorism" and European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton condemned "these cowardly terrorist attacks."
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar pointed the finger at Israel, charging that Iran's arch-foe was seeking to stir up sectarian tensions.
"The terrorist act by the Zionists had a number of objectives, including creating division between Shiites and Sunnis," the ISNA news agency quoted Najjar as saying.
He said Iran's security and intelligence services now had "a grip on the situation."
Sistan-Baluchestan borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and analysts says Jundollah has exploited the unrest in the region to find safe haven on the frontier.
Abdollahi urged Iran's eastern neighbors to "watch their borders" to prevent the militant group using their territory.
Crowds of mourners gathered in the provincial capital Zahedan on Saturday for a mass funeral for the bombings' victims.
They gathered outside the city's Jamia mosque where the bombers struck for a procession to the main cemetery.
"Those who committed these terrorist acts are neither Shiite nor Sunni," said one banner carried by the mourners, while crowds chanted: "Death to terrorists," the official IRNA news agency reported.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/07/17/114083.html
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