ZCZC
BFF-31
IRAN-UNREST-BOMBINGS
Suicide bomber kills 4 in southeast Iran: state media
TEHRAN, Dec 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A suicide bomber killed at least four
people outside a police headquarters in the port city of Chabahar in restive
southeastern Iran on Thursday, its governor said.
Chabahar governor Rahmdel Bameri said many people were also wounded in the
morning car bombing.
“The explosion was very strong and broke the glass of many buildings close
by,” Bameri told state television.
Many nearby shop owners and civilian passers-by, including women and
children, were severely wounded, he added.
Chabahar lies in Sistan-Baluchistan province some 100 kilometres (60 miles)
west of the Pakistan border.
The province has a large, mainly Sunni Muslim ethnic Baluchi community
which straddles the border and has long been a flashpoint, with Pakistan-
based Baluchi separatists and jihadists carrying out cross-border attacks
targeting the Shiite authorities.
The province’s deputy governor in charge of security, Mohammad Hadi
Marashi, said multiple assailants took part in Thursday’s attack.
“The terrorists tried to enter Chabahar police headquarters but they were
prevented by the guards and they detonated the car bomb,” he said.
Chabahar has a deep-water port on the Gulf of Oman and with Indian
assistance Iran has been developing it as a a major energy and freight hub
between Central Asia and India, bypassing Pakistan.
BSS/AFP/RY/1530 hrs