A provincial official in Iran has accused the United States of being behind Thursday's bombing of a mosque that killed at least 19 people.

Jalal Sayah, deputy governor of Sistan-Baluchistan province, said three people had been arrested following the attack.

"According to the information we obtained they were hired by America and the agents of arrogance," he said.

Some 60 people were hurt in the attack during evening prayers at the mosque in Sistan-Baluchestan's capital, Zahedan.

The city is mainly Sunni Muslim and the remote province is one of the most deprived in this mostly Shia country.

It comes at a time of heightened political sensitivity nationally, with just over two weeks before the first round of the presidential election.

Iran official blames U.S. in deadly mosque bombing

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A provincial official said on Friday those behind a mosque bombing that killed around 20 people in Iran had been hired by the United States, Tehran's arch-foe, a semi-official news agency reported.

Jalal Sayyah, at the governor's office in Sistan-Baluchestan province, said three people had been arrested in connection with Thursday evening's blast in a crowded mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, near Pakistan.

The explosion, which some Iranian news agencies say may have been a suicide bombing, took place on a religious holiday two weeks before the June 12 presidential election in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim country. More than 80 people were wounded.

It was the deadliest such bombing incident in the Islamic Republic in more than a decade. In April 2008, a blast in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz killed 14 people.

"It has been confirmed that those behind the terrorist act in Zahedan were hired by America and the arrogance's other hands," Sayyah told Fars News Agency.

Iranian leaders, who often accuse the United States and its allies of seeking to destabilise it, refer to Washington as the "Great Satan" guilty of "global arrogance."

Iran says a Sunni rebel group, Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which has been operating in the border region is part of the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda network and has accused the United States and Britain of backing it.

The province is home to Iran's mostly Sunni ethnic Baluchis and it is scene of frequent clashes between security forces and heavily armed drugs smugglers and bandits.

"BLOOD OF THE OPPRESSED"

Tehran says US-Israeli backed ‘terrorist’ network plotting to disrupt Iran’s June presidential election.

TEHRAN – Iran said on Tuesday that members of a “terrorist” network arrested for plotting bomb attacks aimed at disrupting its June presidential election were linked to the US and Israeli spy agencies.

“Beside having links to (Israel’s) Mossad, these people who sought to cause problems for the election had links to the US intelligence service (the CIA),” deputy Tehran prosecutor Hassan Haddad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

Iran had announced on Sunday the arrest of the network, which Haddad said was made up of three main defendants and four accomplices.

The arrests were based on charges of “cooperating with terrorist groups, acting against (national) security,” he said, adding that more than 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) of explosives were also seized.

Posted 14 minutes ago

A provincial official in south-eastern Iran says the people behind a bomb attack on a mosque this morning were hired by the United States.

The blast killed at least 23 people and injured another 125.

The bomb caused major damage at a Shiite Muslim Mosque while worshippers were gathered for evening prayers on a religious holiday.

It happened in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province. It is an area troubled by violent gangs of drug smugglers and by insurgents who come from Sunni Muslim community.

But the Deputy Governor of the province accused the attackers of being mercenaries hired by the United States.

He said three of them had already been captured.

It is a common accusation from the Iranians and the fact of this case may never be known.

- BBC

''February 23, 2006
The Independent ''

Iraq took a lethal step closer to disintegration and civil war yesterday after a devastating attack on one of the country's holiest sites. The destruction of the golden-domed Shia shrine in Samarra sparked a round of bloody sectarian retaliation in which up to 60 Sunni mosques were attacked and scores of people were killed or injured.

The bomb attack has enraged the majority Shia population, who regard the shrine in the same way that Roman Catholics view St Peter's in Rome.