Iran: 27 Revolutionary Guards killed in suicide bombing

By Muhammet Kursun and Ahmet Dursun

TEHRAN/ANKARA

At least 27 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in a suicide bombing on Wednesday in southeastern Iran.

At least 13 others were injured in the attack in Sistan and Baluchistan province – Iran's second-largest.

In a statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said a bomb-laden vehicle targeted a bus carrying personnel.

The Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”), which claims to support Sunni rights in Shia Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iranian government officials have yet to make a statement.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif took Twitter: “Is it no coincidence that Iran is hit by terror on the very day that #WarsawCircus begins?”

“Especially when cohorts of same terrorists cheer it from Warsaw streets & support it with Twitter bots? US seems to always make the same wrong choices, but expect different results,” Zarif added.

Representatives of several Arab and Western states attended a U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference held in Warsaw on Feb. 13-14. The international ministerial meeting will discuss peace and security in the Middle East, and critical issues such as terrorism, missile development and proliferation.

Separately, a Sunni cleric in Iran, Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi condemned the attack.

Ismaeelzahi said people of Sistan and Baluchistan were suffering from such attacks: “The only victims of [such attacks] are our people who want to live in peace and security.”

Meanwhile, the governorship of the province declared three-day period of mourning after the attack.

Last September an attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, in southwestern Iran killed 25 people -- including Revolutionary Guard members -- and wounded dozens, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years.