At Least 41 Killed in Iran Mosque Bombing

Suicide Bombers Targeted Shi'ite Mourners During Ceremony

At least 41 Shi’ites were killed today and dozens of others wounded in Iran’s southeastern port city of Chahbahar when a pair of suicide bombers targeted mourners outside of the Imam Hussein Mosque. The mourners were commemorating Ashoura, a key Shi’ite religious date.

So far no group has claimed responsibility but it is widely suspected to be the work of Jundallah, a Sunni militant group with designs of Baloch separatism and a history of ties to both al-Qaeda and the United States.

The US had been confirmed to have a covert relationship with Jundallah for years, having been all but overtly backing them in the wake of their split with al-Qaeda. The group’s former leaders, the Rigi brothers, claimed the US provided both funding and ideas for sites to attack.

But last month the State Department finally listed the group as a foreign terrorist organization, a decision which came oddly slow given the organization’s long history of attacks on civilians and religious sites. It is unclear, since the Rigis’ execution by Iran, if the US retains any ties with the group.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.