Iran arrests 15 over mosque blast
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has arrested a total of 15 people over a deadly mosque bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, the intelligence minister said on Wednesday.
Iranian officials have accused the United States and Britain of training and financing people behind the April 12 bombing which killed 13 people and wounded more than 200.
"So far 15 people have been arrested and all the ones involved in this incident are our country's nationals," Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by the state television.
Iran said the bombers were western-backed monarchists shortly after the arrest of first suspects last week.
Ejeie said the bombers were linked with an anti-Islamic television channel, the state broadcaster's website said.
"This movement stems from a place that combats Islam. It is a channel broadcasting from London on 'Your TV' since 2004," the minister said of the Persian language opposition satellite channel.
"In their propaganda they targeted Islam, the Koran, God, the prophet (Mohammed) and Islamic sanctities.
"They brainwashed ... lowlifes and incited hatred towards Islam in a way that if they wanted to carry out an operation those people would be very motivated to do it," Ejeie said.
"If a person is told to go bomb a mosque with people at prayers they would not hesitate."
An opposition expatriate group named the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, headed by 'Your TV' host, Forood Fooladvand, claimed responsibility on its website for the blast and vowed that more "hostile acts" were to be expected.
Iranians have a sizeable diaspora community in Iran's arch-foe, the United States, some of whom support the son of Iran's deposed Shah, Reza Pahlavi.
The intelligence minister said Iran had complained to Britain against people behind the channel in 2005 and 2006 but that the British "did not do anything, in contradiction with their words."
Ejeie also said "the ones responsible for the Shiraz blast were directly controlled by America and were trained in bombing, acting secretly and escaping. They were provided with equipment and financial aid."
The bombing ripped through a packed mosque, which was a gathering place for members of a religious and cultural centre named Rahpouyan-e Vesal, during the evening prayers sermon led by a prominent local cleric.
The local cleric would reportedly preach against Wahhabism -- the ultra-conservative form of Sunni Islam practised in Saudi Arabia.
In his sermon, he also attacked the Bahai faith, whose followers are deemed as apostate by the Islamic republic and their beliefs are not recognised by the constitution, Fars news agency said at the time.
Ejeie described targeting religious places as an "American package" and charged that "the United States officially supports people who commit terrorist acts in the east and west of the country."
Iran is a Shiite-majority country but there are Sunni minorities living in its border provinces of Khuzestan and Kordestan in the west and Sistan-Baluchestan in southeastern Iran.
The intelligence minister also said the people behind the blast "intended to bomb a Russian consulate in Iran to harm Iran's relations with its neighbours."
