Iran yesterday hanged three men in public convicted of involvement in a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque this week that killed 25 people, the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The terrorists Haji Noti Zehi, Gholam Rasoul Shahi Zehi and Zabihollah Naroui were hanged at 6am near the Amir al-Momenin mosque in public,” an official said, referring to the mosque where the bombing took place on Thursday.
“They confessed to illegally bringing explosives into Iran and giving them to the main person behind the bombing,” IRNA quoted the official, Sistan-Baluchestan judiciary public relations chief Hojatoeslam Ebrahim Hamidi, as saying.
“They were convicted of being mohareb [enemies of God] and ‘corrupt on the earth’ and acting against national security,” he said.
“They were arrested before Thursday’s bombing but they confessed that they had provided the explosives for the bombing. They were tried and they had court-appointed legal representation,” Hamidi said.
On Friday, Jalal Sayah, deputy governor of Sistan-Baluchestan, the province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan where the attack took place, said that “three people involved with the terrorist incident were arrested.”
“According to the information obtained, they were hired by America and the agents of the arrogance,” Sayah added.
Officials usually use the term “global arrogance” to refer to Iran’s arch-foe the US.
Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli also pointed the finger towards the US and Israel.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied emphatically that Washington was behind the attack, which it condemned “in the strongest possible terms.”
“The US strongly condemns all forms of terrorism. We do not sponsor any form of terrorism in Iran and we continue to work with the international community to try to prevent any attacks against innocent civilians anywhere,” Kelly told reporters in Washington on Friday.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, expressed strong condemnation and said: “The American people send their deepest condolences to the victims [of the attacks] and their families. No cause justifies terrorism and the United States condemns it in any form, in any country, against any people.”
Kelly noted that the target of the attacks served Muslims of Iran’s Shiite majority and coupled it with recent violence against Shiite mosques elsewhere.
“We note with concern a recent trend of bombings of Shia mosques in Iraq and Pakistan, as well as in Iran, and strongly condemn any kind of sectarian-driven violence,” Kelly said.
Asked about the Iranian accusation of US complicity in the attack, Kelly said: “We do not sponsor any form of terrorism anywhere in the world. Never have, never will.”
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