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Iran suicide bombing kills Revolutionary Guard commanders
Iran's military suffered a heavy blow today when a suicide bomber killed at least 29 people in the country's volatile south-east, including several Revolutionary Guard commanders.
The victims included the guards' deputy commander, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, thought to be the most senior member killed in recent years.
Local media said at least 28 had been wounded in the bombing at a conference hall in Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchistan, Iran's poorest province, as Revolutionary Guard commanders met local tribal elders.
Conflicting reports said an undetermined number of commanders had died. Initial accounts put the number at six, but Hosein Ali Shahriari, MP for Zahedan, the provincial capital, told the semi-official news agency ILNA, that at least 20 commanders had died.
Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, chief commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, was also killed.It was Iran's highest military death toll since the end of the 1980-1988 Iraq war, the conservative website Tabnak said.