TEHRAN, Iran -- Half a dozen mortar bombs slammed into a Tehran residential building next to a Revolutionary Guards base on Monday, and Iraq-based rebels claimed responsibility for the attack.
The blasts were the second violent incident in the Iranian capital in two days and followed the attempted assassination on Sunday of a leading reformer and close ally of President Mohammad Khatami.Witnesses said at least two people were injured in the mortar blasts, which took place at around 1:30 p.m. (1000 GMT).
A gardener at the Guards complex, known as Sarallah, lost his legs, the witnesses said. A teenage girl was hit in the face by splinters.
A dozen cars on the street took the brunt of the explosions, with shrapnel tearing into the nearby building and blowing out windows, witnesses said.
A Revolutionary Guard said five members of parliament lived in the residential building, one of whom was home at the time. He later emerged unhurt.
"It started about 1:30 and in a span of 10 minutes, five to seven rounds were fired," Mohammad Morajab, the caretaker at the residential complex, told Reuters.
Iraq-based Mujahideen Khalq, the main armed Iranian opposition group, said its forces inside Iran had launched the bombs at the Guards headquarters and that no civilians were among the casualties.
"All the casualties were Guards commanders and members. No civilian is allowed to enter the area," said Mujahideen spokesman Ali Safavi, speaking to Reuters in Dubai by telephone from Paris.
Police and Revolutionary Guards moved in to cordon off the area, with investigators at the scene, backed by fire crews.
The Guards base is responsible for security for the whole of Tehran.
Last month, mortar bombs hit the presidential palace and nearby government buildings, killing one person and wounding others.
The Mujahideen Khalq claimed responsibility for that attack, which appeared similar to Monday's assault.
The group, which rejects the possibility of reforms under Iran's Islamic government, have in recent years stepped up cross-border raids from their bases in Iraq and attacks deep inside Iran.
A Revolutionary Guards officer, who declined to be named, told Reuters the weapon used in the latest attack was a mortar similar to the one used against the presidential office.
He said the Guards base was a too large a target to miss and suggested the attackers were instead seeking to sow panic among the civilian population of the city.
Tehran's security forces were already on high alert following the shooting on Sunday of Saeed Hajjarian, mastermind of the reform movement's big election victory last month.
Hajjarian was fighting for his life in a Tehran hospital with a bullet lodged in his neck.