Five die in sectarian clashes in southeastern Iran; dozens reported injured
TEHRAN, Iran - A fire allegedly set by militants during sectarian clashes in a restive Iranian city left at least five dead yesterday, according to Iranian state media. Dozen were reported injured in the day's fighting.
The website of Iran's English-language Press TV said five employees of a branch of Mehr Financial and Credit Institute, a small bank, in the southeastern city of Zahedan died in the alleged arson attack.
According to Adel Mazari, a local journalist, the attack took place at noon as dozens of men rampaged through a poor section of the city, trashing a water-treatment plant and a clinic as well as the bank. Security forces quelled the unrest within hours, said Mazari.
Pakistani media said Iran had shut down the border crossing between the two countries in response to the violence.
The Press TV report said clashes erupted as a "group of Sunni hard-liners took to the streets" to protest a decision by a Sunni cleric to participate in a memorial service for Shi'ite Muslim victims of a Thursday mosque explosion that killed 25 people.
The ethnic Baluch militant group Jundollah claimed responsibility for that attack.
Tensions have risen in the volatile ethnically and religiously mixed southern Iran ahead of crucial June 12 elections. Iran's majority Persians and its Azeris are mostly Shi’ite Muslim, while the ethnic Baluchis in southeastern Iran are mostly Sunni.
Iranian authorities also discovered a bomb Saturday aboard a plane leaving Iran's southwest city of Ahvaz, which is home to many ethnic Arabs. The New York Times reported that former President Mohammad Khatami was expected to fly on the flight. 