Iran hangs three for mosque bombing

ZAHEDAN, Iran, May 30 (UPI) -- Three men already jailed for other attacks were executed Saturday for planning this week's deadly suicide bombing at an Iranian mosque, officials in Tehran say.

The official Iranian Republic News Agency IRNA said the men were hanged Saturday morning near the site of the Thursday mosque attack in the predominantly Sunni Arab southeastern Iran city of Zahedan. Nineteen people died when a bomber infiltrated the Shiite facility and blew himself up, the BBC reported.

The Sunni militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack, with a spokesman telling Saudi-owned TV channel Al-Arabiya the bomber was targeting a high-level meeting of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards being held inside, the British broadcaster said.

IRNA said the three hanged men, who had been imprisoned in connection with other attacks, "confessed to illegally bringing explosives into Iran and giving them to the main person behind the bombing."