Iran Finally Admits Shiraz Mosque Bombing Was Terror Attack - but then Blames US and Britain
[ Just a reminder: The Terror group responsible is probably Sunni Jihad, who has claimed credit. I pegged that one the day of the bombing, although there was some dissent here. ]
Iran is claiming terrorists with links to the United States and Britain carried out a mosque explosion that killed 14 after earlier blaming the blast on leftover explosives from an event commemorating the Iraq-Iran war, Reuters reported on Thursday.
“The blast … was caused by a bombing by a terrorist group with links to Western countries, especially Britain and America,” the ISNA news agency quoted Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejehi.
Officials said they had arrested six people who were found with weapons and had “intended to carry out similar acts in other places,” said Mohseni-Ejehi, alleging that when given intelligence on the suspects, Western nations ignored Iran’s appeal for action and instead supported the six, Reuters reported. The main suspect still was at large, he said.
Some 200 of the 1,000 people packed into the mosque were injured in the April 12 blast. The holy house in Shiraz, about 559 miles south of Tehran, was the site of a recent military exhibition.
One day after the blast, the police chief of southern Fars Province, Gen. Ali Moayyedi, said the explosion was not a bombing and rejected links to “any sort of insurgency.”