By Zahra Hosseinian and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A provincial official said on Friday those behind a mosque bombing that killed around 20 people in Iran had been hired by the United States, Tehran's arch-foe, a semi-official news agency reported.
Jalal Sayyah, at the governor's office in Sistan-Baluchestan province, said three people had been arrested in connection with Thursday evening's blast in a crowded mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, near Pakistan.
The explosion, which some Iranian news agencies say may have been a suicide bombing, took place on a religious holiday two weeks before the June 12 presidential election in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim country. More than 80 people were wounded.
It was the deadliest such bombing incident in the Islamic Republic in more than a decade. In April 2008, a blast in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz killed 14 people.
"It has been confirmed that those behind the terrorist act in Zahedan were hired by America and the arrogance's other hands," Sayyah told Fars News Agency.
Iranian leaders, who often accuse the United States and its allies of seeking to destabilise it, refer to Washington as the "Great Satan" guilty of "global arrogance."
Iran says a Sunni rebel group, Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which has been operating in the border region is part of the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda network and has accused the United States and Britain of backing it.
The province is home to Iran's mostly Sunni ethnic Baluchis and it is scene of frequent clashes between security forces and heavily armed drugs smugglers and bandits.
"BLOOD OF THE OPPRESSED"
Sistan-Baluchestan governor Ali Mohammad Azad put the death toll at 19, but other officials were quoted as saying 21 or 23 had died. One news agency, ILNA, said hours after the explosion on Thursday that 30 people were killed.
"The terrorist team behind the blast have been arrested and interrogation of them is continuing," Azad told the official IRNA news agency.
In April, Iran's intelligence minister said it had arrested a group of people linked to Israel who were planning bombings ahead of the election, in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seeking a second four-year term.
A Sistan-Baluchestan representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also pointed at involvement of foreign powers in comments cited by the ISNA news agency.
"Again blood of the oppressed is on the hands of terrorist criminals and those who are fed by the global arrogance," the unnamed official said in a statement.
Iranian media said a big part of the mosque was destroyed by the blast, which took place when many worshippers were inside. Three days of mourning were declared in the province.
"Among the wounded is a four-year-old who had gone to the mosque for prayers along with the family," Azad said.
In June 1994, a blast killed 26 people at the Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern city of Mashad, the worst bombing in Iran since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
