Bus bombing in Iran kills eleven

By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A booby-trapped car blew up a bus owned by the Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people, in a border city in southeastern Iran where security forces and drug smugglers often clash, state media reported.

Jundollah (God's soldiers), a shadowy Sunni Muslim group that Iran has linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility, an Iranian news agency and a Dubai-based TV channel said. The group has been blamed for past kidnappings and killings in the area.

Clerics were quick to urge Iranians, who are overwhelmingly Shi'ites, not to blame Sunnis for the incident. Iran is wary of anything that might spark sectarian tension in a country where Sunnis make up about 9 percent of the 70 million population.

Provincial governor Hassan Ali Nouri told the official IRNA news agency 11 staff members of the Guards were killed and 31 injured in the blast in Zahedan city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which is on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The governor said one of those behind the blast was killed in the incident, suggesting a total toll of 12, but he did not spell this out. IRNA earlier said 18 people were killed, while state TV and radio said the death toll was 11.

The bomb was hidden in a car and exploded at about 6.30 a.m. (3 a.m. British Time) as the bus, belonging to a unit that transports employees of the Guards, passed by, IRNA said. Pictures showed the wreckage of a bus at the side of the road.

"Five people have been arrested," an official in the governor's office of Zahedan told Reuters.

Fars news agency said four people were in the car which seemed to have broken down on the road. When the bus approached, the four fled on motorbikes and the car exploded.