Suicide bomber kills one in southern Iran mosque attack

>

The bomber set off his explosive belt a few hundred meters (yards) outside the Imam Hossein mosque in the city of Chabahar, killing a member of the Basij militia and injuring another, Fars news agency reported.

"Eyewitnesses said the attacker was trying to get inside the mosque but he was identified by members of the Basij," the report stated. No further details were immediately available.

Chabahar is in Sistan-Baluchistan province, near the Pakistan border, and has a history of unrest with the mainly Sunni Muslim population complaining of discrimination at the hands of Iran's Shi'ite Muslim authorities.

An attack by two suicide bombers at the same mosque in 2010 killed 39 people - including women and children - during a religious ceremony.

The Sunni rebel group Jundollah claimed responsibility for that attack, which it said was avenged the execution of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who was hanged by Iranian authorities six months earlier.

The group is believed to be based in Pakistan and since 2003 has taken credit for a number of attacks and kidnappings inside Iranian territory with the aim of fighting for better rights for Sunni Muslims in Iran.

Iran says Jundollah has links to al Qaeda and has accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of supporting the group to stir instability in its southeast, home to Iran's Sunni minority. The three countries deny backing Jundollah.

(Reporting by Marcus George; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

World Middle East Turmoil