A bomb tore through a military parade in Iran Wednesday killing ten people, mostly women and children, as the country marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the bloody Iran-Iraq war, reports said.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blast, which occurred during an annual military parade in the northwestern Kurdish town of Mahabad, Arabic-language television channel al-Alam said.

“The explosion happened in the morning as people were watching the military parade and it left nine dead and dozens wounded, mostly women and children. The explosives were in a bag,” al-Alam said.

The attack took place as Iran marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, during which army parades are traditionally staged across the country.

Provincial governor Vahid Jalalzadeh confirmed the casualties to the official IRNA news agency.

“Counter-revolutionaries committed this savage act with the aim of taking revenge on the people of Mahabad in West Azarbaijan province,” he said.

“This bomb was a time-bomb planted on a tree among the people and it went off at 10:20 (0650 GMT),” the website of state-run television IRIB quoted a military official as saying.

IRIB said at least 57 were injured in the blast.

Western Iran, which has a sizeable Kurdish population, has seen deadly clashes in recent years between the Iranian security forces and Kurdish rebel groups, mainly the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) operating from bases in neighboring Iraq.

source: Al Arabiya

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