UNITED NATIONS: Iran is demanding that the UN Security Council strongly condemn a bomb attack last weekend that killed dozens of people, six of them commanders in the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards.

Mourners hold a picture of Revolutionary Guards commander Hamid Reza Naseri, one of the commanders killed during a suicide bombing attack in Zahedan this week. [Agencies]

Yesterday, throngs of uniformed mourners carried the flag-draped coffins of the deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, General Nourali Shoushtari, and other officers blown up by a suicide bomber in volatile southeastern Iran on Sunday.

Fifteen Guards members were among the 42 people killed, Iranian media reported. Tribal chiefs and other civilians also died.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran expects that the Security Council react to this terrorist attack by condemning it in the strongest term(s)," Iran's UN ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, said in a letter to Vietnamese Ambassador Le Luong Minh, the current president of the 15-nation council.

Khazaee said the Sunni Muslim insurgent group Jundollah (God's soldiers) claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to take all necessary measures to bring this terrorist group to justice," he said in the letter. "We expect the international community, including the neighboring countries, to uphold their international obligations in this respect."

It was not clear if the council would take up the issue.

Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari accused the United States, Britain and Pakistan of sharing responsibility for the bomb attack.

He was quoted by Iran's ISNA news agency as saying that Iranian security officials had documents indicating Jundollah had "direct ties" to US, British and Pakistani intelligence.

Britain and the United States are permanent members of the Security Council, which Iran accuses of taking illegal action against the Islamic Republic to suppress its nuclear program.

Yesterday, the state news agency said Iran has convicted an Iranian-American academic for his alleged role in the post-election unrest in the country and sentenced him to more than 12 years in prison.

Academic Kian Tajbakhsh was arrested on July 9 during a violent crackdown by security forces on street protesters and Iranian opposition members rallying against the country's disputed presidential elections.

Iran's atomic activities are a regular item on the Security Council's agenda. Teheran's nuclear ambitions are also the subject of international talks at the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna this week.

Reuters