Iran official blames U.S. in deadly mosque bombing

By Zahra Hosseinian and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian official accused the United States on Friday of involvement in a mosque bombing that killed more than 20 people in volatile southeastern Iran, two weeks before a presidential election.

Washington denied the allegation.

Jalal Sayyah, of the governor's office in Sistan-Baluchestan province, said three people had been arrested in connection with the blast on Thursday in a crowded Shi'ite mosque in the city of Zahedan, in a region where many of Iran's minority Sunnis live.

"The terrorists, who were equipped by America in one of our neighboring countries, carried out this criminal act in their efforts to create religious conflict and fear and to influence the presidential election," Sayyah told state radio.

A Sunni opposition group named Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which mainly Shi'ite Muslim Iran says is part of the Islamist al Qaeda network and backed by the United States, said it was behind the bombing, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said.

The Dubai-based station said a man called it saying it was a suicide attack aimed at Basij forces, a religious militia, meeting in the mosque to coordinate election strategy.

It was not possible to verify the claim of involvement of Jundollah, which says it fights for the rights of Iran's Sunnis.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also suggested Iran's foreign enemies were involved in the blast, saying "no one can doubt that the hands of...some interfering powers and their spying services are bloodied by the blood of the innocent."

The U.S. State Department denied involvement in the bombing.

"We condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "We do not sponsor any form of terrorism in Iran.

Sayyah said two children were among the dead. The official IRNA news agency put the death toll at 25 and named most of the victims, all males. Other media gave somewhat lower figures.

The person who detonated the device was standing among men praying in Ali Ebne-Abitaleb mosque and was also killed, provincial judiciary official Ebrahim Hamidi said.

Iranian media said a big part of the mosque was destroyed by the blast. Footage showed a blood-stained floor inside.

It was one of the deadliest such bombing incidents in Iran since its 1980-88 war with Iraq. A blast in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz killed 14 people in April last year but the country has been relatively peaceful in a turbulent region.

"It has been confirmed that those behind the terrorist act in Zahedan were hired by America and the arrogance's other hands," Sayyah told the semi-official Fars News Agency.