Ashish Joshi, Gulf correspondent
Iran has warned it will take revenge against the US and Britain, accusing them of being involved in a suicide bombing that killed several Revolutionary Guard commanders.
General Noor Ali Shooshtari was among the Revolutionary Guard victims
Six senior commanders and dozens of civilians died in the attack.
The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on "terrorists" backed by "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain", the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
"Not in the distant future we (Iran) will take revenge."
Earlier, Iranian state television said Sunni rebels carried out the bombing.
It said the militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) had claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Iran in recent years.
State media cited sources as saying "Britain was directly involved" - a common tactic used to divert attention away from the country’s internal problems.
Attack was near border with Pakistan
The UK Foreign Office said it rejected "in the strongest terms" any assertion of British involvement.
"The British Government condemns the terrorist attack in the Province of Sistan and Baluchistan in Iran and the sad loss of life which it caused," it added in a statement.
The US also condemned the bombing and denied it had anything to do with it.
"We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false," US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
The allegations of foreign involvement are likely to raise tension between Tehran and the West, a day before nuclear talks in Vienna.
The military commanders were inside a car on their way to a meeting with tribal leaders when an attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up.
The victims include General Noor Ali Shooshtari, the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, and Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, the Guard's chief provincial commander, the IRNA news agency said.
Up to 30 other people, including civilians and tribal leaders, are reported to have been killed and more than 20 wounded.
The attack took place in the south-eastern Pishin region near Iran's border with Pakistan.
Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, condemned the assassination, saying the bombing was aimed at disrupting security in the region.
"We express our condolences for their martyrdom," he said.
"The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province."
Revolutionary Guard soldiers
Over the past few years Jundallah has waged a low-level insurgency and has been at the centre of several violent attacks.
In May, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shi'ite mosque that killed 25 people in Zahedan.
Thirteen members of the group were convicted for the attack and hanged in July.
Jundallah accuses the mostly Shi'ite government of persecution.
This latest bombing comes at a time when Iran is still reeling from the fallout of its disputed June presidential elections.
A successful attack on such a high profile target marks a significant victory for the attackers.
The Revolutionary Guard was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as an ideological and impenetrable wall to defend Iran's clerical rule.
The 120,000-strong elite force controls Iran's missile program and has its own ground, naval and air units.
Today the unit has evolved into a socio-military force with political and economic influence.
It is now an inextricable part of Iran's power structure.
Seymour Hersh: US Training Jundullah and MEK for Bombing Preparation
According to an interview July 8, 2008, with Seymour Hersh, the US is training terrorist groups to cause chaos inside Iran, provoking an aggressive reaction from the Iranians, which will serve as a pretext for military action from the US.Source: CASMII
Seymour Hersh: US Training Jondollah and MEK for Bombing preparation
In an interview with NPR on his latest New Yorker Article, titled ‘Preparing the battlefield’, the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals more striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran. He provides valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration’s executive power, about the US recognition of Iran’s overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organisations Jondollah, PJAK and MEK.
Hersh explains that the aim of the US covert operations inside Iran is to create a pretext for attack with the goal of regime change. “The strategic thinking behind this covert operation is to provoke enough trouble and chaos so that the Iranian government makes the mistake of taking aggressive action which will give the impression of a country in acute turmoil”, he said. “Then you have what the White House calls the ‘casus belli’, a reason to attack the country. That is the thinking and it is very crazy.”
On Iran’s role in Iraq, Hersh points out: “There is absolutely no clear evidence known to the American government that the Iranian leadership has any interest in provoking trouble with the United States in Iraq by sending in people to cause mayhem or kill Americans. There is just no evidence for it.” He continues further on: “Frankly, the guys I know in the inside– in the Special Forces, high up in DoD, high up in the intelligence community–if you push them hard enough, they tell you that Iran has been more of a force for stability in Iraq than negative”.
Hersh comments that the decision to launch these covert operations was prompted by the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate’s verdict that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme and that the approval by the US Congress leadership of the $400 million budget for the operations “is totally an expansion” of the executive powers of the Bush Administration.
He explains how the Bush Administration’s policy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” has led the US to support the Baluchi organisation Jondollah and the MEK (Mujahideen-e-Khalq a.k.a PMOI), both of which have clear track records of terrorist activities including against the US. He reiterates that the US has been giving arms and cash to the terrorists in the MEK for years and reveals that “most of the [MEK] leaders have been taking our money and cashing it in an awful lot of bank accounts in London.” He also reveals for the first time that the US has trained MEK teams in the state of Nevada and that “they do a lot of crazy stuff inside Iran”.
Hersh warns that “we have been moving cruise missiles there for a few months now”, and that the US military is ready. “Our submarines are there, our destroyers are there with cruise missiles aboard, our aircrafts are there, our soldiers are there” to attack Iran within “10 to 12 hours” of the go-ahead order by President Bush, he says, stressing that troops have to go on the ground in Iran in order to destroy Iran’s defensive systems.
He finally points out that Bush “is going to be a very active president, I am afraid, until 11:59:59 seconds on January 20, 2009” and raises the alarm about an “October surprise”, a military attack on Iran, in particular if Obama continues to have a lead in the polls.
Listen to the whole interview here .
For more information or to contact CASMII please visit http://www.campaigniran.org
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