Suicide bombing and Iran

ARTICLE: Iran bombing kills 5 Revolutionary Guard leaders, By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and BRIAN MURPHY, The Associated Press, October 19, 2009

It'll be interesting to see if suicide bombing becomes a frequent issue in Iran.

Naturally, we and the Brits are already being blamed.

Comments

[Javaid Akhtar]

The US/UK connection was internal consumption...more seriously ...the Pakistanis were summoned for a dressing down over this bombing by the Iranians.Its a strange bombing ..hard to call ( if any ) the hand behind the puppet.

[stuart abrams]

I see no hand behind the puppet. Balochistan is the next flash point as the fake states of Af-Pak continue to unravel. If we approach this correctly, this can be a further basis for engagement with Iran, another example of common interest in stabilizing the region against radical extremism.

[Andrew in DC]

With the recent push by Ahmedinejad and the IRGC toward increased power and internal control, I'd be interested to know if those killed held more loyalty to the mullahs than Ahmedinejad.If so, it lends itself to the idea of some (further?) IRGC internal clean-up.

As I read this story, I remembered that during the uprisings in June, certain generals were dispatched to the eastern hinterlands, which looked like Ahmedinejad solidifying his power base.

The opposite, of course, suggests Mullahs pushing back, but seems unlikely given the location of the attack. Either way, the Brit-scapegoat is an obvious ploy. The Pakistan/Baluchi tie mentioned by Javid might be a cover-within-a-cover. I just don't see the Sunnis - even the separatists in that region - picking a fight right now with Iran.

Of course, given what will or won't come out in the easily-accessible media, I don't think we'll know any time soon. I wonder if Al-Jazeera will have a follow-up.

[Javaid Akhtar]

Balouchistan is too large & underpopulated for the locals to liberate.It would need a big push above the low level help the separatists get from India and that would have be out in the open to have any impact.Ungluing the confection that is Pakistan is not a simple or natural narrative that that region is going to follow.

[Tom Barnett]

Agree that no one seeks ungluing on purpose. The reasons the borders largely hold is that no one that eager to own anybody else's problems.

But those locals in question sometime act in ways that led to unintended consequences.