Bomb attack at parade kills 12 in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran - A bomb exploded at a military parade in northwestern Iran yesterday, killing 12 spectators in an attack that one official blamed on Kurdish separatists.

The blast in the city of Mahabad, close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey, wounded 75 people, media reports said. Most of the victims were women and children, said provincial Governor Vahid Jalalzadeh, who was quoted in a report by Iran's state broadcasting company.

Iranian forces in the border zone have clashed for years with Kurdish rebels from the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which also has fighters based in Turkey and Iraq. The group in Iran has generally not targeted civilians in its campaign for greater rights, raising the prospect that the bomb might have gone off prematurely.

A state radio report said the device was detonated on a timer and had been placed under a bush near the parade route.

Jalalzadeh told state TV the explosion was carried out by "counterrevolutionaries," a reference to the Kurdish separatists. He called the bombing "a terrorist incident" and claimed it had the backing of foreign governments.

Iranian officials have frequently accused the United States, Britain and other Western powers of stoking disorder in the country, including the unrest that swept Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June 2009.

- AP