General Noor Ali ShooshtariOn Sunday a suicide bombing targeted the Iranian National Guard and killed 26 people. The deputy commander of the Guards’ ground force, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, and the Guards’ chief provincial commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, were among at least six officers reported to have been killed.

Iran holds the United States and Britain, responsible for the incident. State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said, “We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives. Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, vows revenge for the attack. Iran’s president has accused Pakistani agents of involvement in a suicide bombing in south-east of the country targeting a group of the elite Revolutionary Guards force. He called on Pakistan to arrest the attackers, who he said had entered Iran from Pakistan.

“We were informed that some security agents in Pakistan are co-operating with the main elements of this terrorist incident,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency. “We regard it as our right to demand these criminals from them,” he said, without elaborating. “We ask the Pakistani government not to delay any longer in the apprehension of the main elements in this terrorist attack.” (BBC)

Actually a Sunni rebel group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, later on in the day. This particular organization has been carrying out attacks on the mainly Shiite Iranian government, since the 1979 formation of the Revolutionary Guard. Jundallah, also known as the Popular Resistance Movement of Iran, says it is fighting against the political and religious oppression of the country’s minority Sunni Muslims.