A booby-trapped car blew up a bus owned by the Revolutionary Guards today, killing at least 11 people, in a border city in southeast Iran where security forces and drug smugglers often clash, state media reported.
An Iraqi soldier looks at pictures of police officers killed during a car bomb explosion, southeast of Baghdad
The semi-official Fars News Agency said Jundollah (God's soldiers), a shadowy Sunni Muslim group Iran has linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility. The group has been blamed for past kidnappings and killings in the area.
Clerics were quick to urge Iranians, who are overwhelmingly Shias, not to blame Sunnis for the incident. Iran is wary of anything that might spark sectarian tension in a country where Sunnis make up about 9 per cent of the 70 million population.
Provincial governor Hassan Ali Nouri told the official IRNA news agency 11 staff members of the Guards were killed and 31 were injured in the blast in Zahedan city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which is on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The governor said one of those behind the blast was killed in the incident, suggesting a total toll of 12, but he did not spell this out. IRNA earlier said 18 people were killed, while state TV and radio said 11 were killed.
The bomb was hidden in a car and exploded at about 6.30 a.m. (0300 GMT) as the bus, belonging to a unit that transports employees of the Guards, passed by, IRNA said. Pictures showed the blast left a mangled bus wreckage on the side of the road.
"Five people have been arrested," an official in the governor's office of Zahedan said.
Fars news agency said four people were in the car which seemed to have broken down on the road. When the bus approached, the four fled on motorbikes and the car exploded.
"A group called Jundollah, under the leadership of Abdolmalek Rigi, the eastern rebels in the country, ... took responsibility for this terrorist act," Fars reported.