Iran Bomber Kills 26, 5 Elite Guards

A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others in a southeastern area that has been at the center of a simmering Sunni insurgency, the official IRNA news agency reports. The commanders were on their way to a meeting with local tribal leaders to promote Sunni-Shiite unity near Iran's border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives around his waist blew himself up, IRNA said.

A top provincial prosecutor said a Sunni militant group called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the attack on the 120,000-strong Revolutionary Guard, which controls Iran's missile program. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to strike back at those behind today's attack, and accused unspecified foreigners of involvement. A State Department spokesman condemned what he called an "act of terrorism," and said reports of US involvement are "completely false." (More Iran stories.)