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Bombing at Iran military parade, 10 killed
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 06:35:26 PM,
DPA
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Tehran:
A bomb exploded Wednesday during a military parade in northwestern
Iran, killing at least 10 people and injuring 35, state media
reported.
The governor of Azerbaijan province told Mehr news agency that the
death toll could rise because at least four more people sustained
life-threatening injuries in the bombing in Mahabad.
Soldiers at the parade were not injured, said Governor Vahid
Jalalzadeh, who blamed "counter-revolutionaries" for the
explosion.
The wives of two high-ranking military officials were among those
killed by the bomb, which was reportedly planted inside a bag 50
metres from the parade venue.
Military parades were held throughout the country Wednesday to
commemorate the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 war
with Iraq, which Iran calls the "sacred defence".
Mahabad has a population of almost 200,000 people, most of whom
are members of the Kurdish minority.
Kurds are Sunni Muslims while the majority of Iranians are
Shiites. Sunnis make up about 10 per cent of Iran's population.
Kurdish rebel groups in Iran have been at odds with the government
in Tehran for decades, seeking autonomy in Kurdish-populated
provinces and an alliance with Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Jalalzadeh said most of the victims were women and children who
were following the parade from the VIP box.
The governor told the news network Khabar that "foreign elements"
such as the US and it allies might have been behind the incident.
Iran has several times accused the US of being behind bombings in
the country, but so far had not presented any evidence.
One of the groups suspected of the bombing in Mahabad is a wing of
the outlawed Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK).
PJAK is a Kurdish nationalist group affiliated with Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers' Party, with which Iranian forces have had
several violent clashes.
Five Kurdish rebels believed to be members of PJAK were hanged in
May in Tehran for a series of bomb attacks in Iranian cities.
Also in May, five PJAK rebels were killed in Kermanshah, another
Kurdish province in north-western Iran.
The majority of Kurds in the country are integrated into Iranian
society. They have some cultural autonomy, but are obliged to
learn Persian rather than Kurdish in schools.
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