Islamic “Soldier of God” blows himself up, killing Revolutionary Guard Commander

Who’s to blame? “The Global Arrogance”, i.e., the United States of America:

TEHRAN, Iran — A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others in an area of southeastern Iran that has been at the center of a simmering Sunni insurgency, state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the dead included the deputy commander of the Guard’s ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander for the area, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The other dead were Guard members or local tribal leaders. More than two dozen others were wounded, state radio reported.

The commanders were inside a car on their way to a meeting with local tribal leaders in the Pishin district near Iran’s border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives blew himself up, IRNA said.

Iran’s state-owned English language TV channel, Press TV, said there were two simultaneous explosions: one at the meeting and another targeting an additional convoy of Guards on their way to the gathering.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the region in Iran’s southeast has been the focus of violent attacks by a militant group from Iran’s Sunni Muslim minority called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which has waged a low-level insurgency in recent years.

The group accuses Iran’s Shiite-dominated government of persecution and has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and Shiite targets in the southeast.

That campaign is one of several ethnic and religious small-scale insurgencies in Iran that have fueled sporadic and sometimes deadly attacks in recent years – though none have amounted to a serious threat to the government.

The Revolutionary Guard blamed Sunday’s attack on what it called the “global arrogance,” a reference to the United States.

“The global arrogance, with the provocation of its local mercenaries, targeted the meeting of the Guard with local tribal leaders,” said a Guard statement read out on state TV.

Gee, it’s not like Tehran has its hands clean of violence against U.S. soldiers; nor is it innocent in incitement and fueling of an insurgency in neighboring Iraq.

And just love the following statement from Iran’s parliamentary speaker:

“We express our condolences for their martyrdom. …

Isn’t that charming?