It is curious that the blast in zahedan follows two separate bombing incidents:

In Baghdad, on the anniversary of Al-Askariya mosque bombing on Monday
and in Beirut, on the anniversary of Rafik Hariri assasination on
Tuesday.




 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070214/wl_canada_nm/canada_iran_bomb_col_8



Bus bombed in southeast Iran killing at least 11

by Edmund Blair, Reuters, 14 February 2007


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 southeast
Iran where security forces and drug smugglers often clash, state media
reported.

The semi-official Fars News Agency said Jundollah (God's soldiers), a
shadowy Sunni Muslim group Iran has linked to al Qaeda, claimed
responsibility. 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 were 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 11 were killed.

The bomb was hidden in a car and exploded at about 6.30 a.m. (0300
GMT) as the bus, belonging to a unit that transports employees of the
Guards, passed by, IRNA said. Pictures showed the blast left a mangled
bus wreckage on 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.

"A group called Jundollah, under the leadership of Abdolmalek Rigi,
the eastern rebels in the country, ... took responsibility for this
terrorist act," Fars reported.

'ALL MOURN AND WORRY'

Iran has said Jundollah was behind the murder of 12 people in a
roadside attack in May, and other incidents. Officials previously said
Rigi was a cell leader of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in Iran.

"People should face this crime with patience, awareness and realism
just like other events and separate the issue of a few rebels from
Sunnis -- though they were Sunnis -- because our Sunni brothers are
innocent of these crimes," said Abbasali Soleimani, who represents
Iran's supreme leader in the area.

Soleimani, who was quoted by IRNA, said "enemies" had crossed into
Iran to carry out the attack. Neighboring Iraq is riven by
Sunni-Shi'ite tensions.

Sunni regions in Iran, like Sistan-Baluchistan, say they suffer
discrimination in the Islamic Republic.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in response to fighting in
Iraq, has also warned Iranians about what he says are U.S. efforts to
divide the two Muslim sects.

The area around Zahedan resembles a war zone, dotted with forts,
trenches and machinegun posts. More than 3,300 Iranian security
personnel have died in the region fighting drug traffickers since the
1979 Islamic revolution.