Iran blasts U.S. claims on Jundallah

TEHRAN, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. claims it was not supporting the Jundallah militant group responsible for attacks in Iran are unacceptable, Iran's parliamentary speaker said.

Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, told reporters that the U.S. denial "cannot be justified by words," the Mehr News Agency reports.

A suicide operation during the weekend at a conference between Shiite and Sunni groups in southeastern Iran killed several senior commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Pakistani-based Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack. Iran blames Pakistan for harboring the group and the United States and Britain for backing the militant organization.

Washington and Islamabad joined the international community condemning the attacks.

The U.S. State Department does not include Jundallah on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. When asked about the situation Monday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said it was "something we're looking at."

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the leadership of the Jundallah group was in Afghanistan, not Pakistan, and his government was working with the Iranian government on the issue, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Jundallah claimed responsibility for a June attack at the Ali Ibn Abi Taleb mosque in Sistan-Baluchistan province that killed as many as 21 and wounded more than 70 others.