TEHRAN — A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and at least 37 others Sunday near Iran’s border with Pakistan in the heartland of a potentially escalating Sunni insurgency.
The attack, which also left dozens wounded, was the most high-profile strike against security forces in a region of armed tribal groups, drug smugglers and Sunni rebels known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised sharp retaliation. But a sweeping offensive by authorities is unlikely.
Iranian officials have been reluctant to open full- scale military operations in the southeastern border zone, fearing it could become a hotspot for sectarian violence with the potential to draw in al-Qaeda and Sunni militants from nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The region’s top prosecutor, Mohammad Marzieh, was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying Jundallah claimed responsibility for the blast in the Pishin district near the Pakistani border.
There was no immediate statement from the group, which has carried out abductions and attacks in recent years — including targeting the Revolutionary Guard — to press its claims of persecution in the Shiite government.
