Iranian Officials Raise Death Toll to 12 in Explosion
By Associated Press | April 14, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian officials raised the death toll from an explosion in a packed mosque in southern Iran to 12 yesterday and said more than 200 had been injured in the blast. Iranian press initially quoted local officials as saying the explosion Saturday in the city of Shiraz was caused by a homemade bomb and could have been religiously motivated. But officials gave a different account yesterday, saying it was an accident possibly caused by ammunition leftover from a military exhibition. The "explosion was due to an accident which is under investigation," the deputy interior minister in charge of security, Abbas Mohtaj, said.
