TEHRAN (Reuters) – Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late yesterday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing killed 25 people in the country’s southeast.
The incident occurred less than two weeks before the Islamic Republic holds a presidential election in which the conservative incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faces a challenge from reformers.
“The enemies want to create a security-threat environment before the country’s presidential election and to create hopelessness among people,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Mohammad Hassan Kazemi, a commander in the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of aviation security, as saying. The semi-official Fars news agency said the device was defused after the Tehran-bound Kish Air aircraft with 131 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.
Disqus' Privacy Policy can be read here. Please read our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.