A bomb exploded at a military parade in northwestern Iran on Wednesday, killing 10 spectators, officials said.
"Counter-revolutionary groups, by inserting themselves among the people attending the armed forces parade, showed their heinous faith," Vahid Jalalzadeh, the provincial governor of Iran's West Azerbaijan province, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency. He blamed Kurdish separatists for the attack.
NBC News reported that most of the victims were women and children. Jalalzadeh called the bombing "a terrorist incident."
The blast in the city of Mahabad, close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey, also injured 57 people, according to local media reports.
Reuters reported at least 12 people dead and 70 injured.
Al-Alam TV reported that the explosion occurred at around 10:30 a.m. local time. It said no group had claimed responsibility for the attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the parade, which was part of "Sacred Defense" celebrations, an annual ceremony for the Iranian military.
Television footage showed troops marching past a podium when a blast happened. Pictures of the aftermath showed blood on the ground, shoes and an abandoned pram. The government announced three days of mourning in the city.
Iranian forces in the border zone have for years clashed with Kurdish rebels from the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which also has fighters based in Turkey and Iraq. The group in Iran has generally not targeted civilians in its campaign for greater rights for the Kurdish minority, raising the prospect that the bomb might have gone off prematurely.
A state radio report said the device was detonated on a timer and had been placed under a bush near the parade route.
The parade was one of several events around the country to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war. No military personnel were wounded, Jalalzadeh said.
The Mehr news agency said the dead included the wives of two of ranking military officers.
"The explosion happened opposite the VIP stage among women who were present there," Jalalzadeh was quoted as saying in the state TV report.
The attack occurred as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York amid a standoff between Tehran and major powers over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making weapons.
"The blast was aimed at the president's political success in New York as well as Iran's defense power," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the IRIB website. "It was a reaction of the Zionist regime (Israel) and its supporters (Washington)." Iran does not recognize Israel.
On August 4 a homemade explosive went off near Ahmadinejad's motorcade as he travelled to the western city of Hamadan. He was unharmed and officials said the blast was just a firecracker.
Several armed groups hostile to the government are active in Iran, including Kurdish separatists in the northwest, Baluch militants in the southeast and some Arabs in the southwest.
The Iranian branch of the Kurdish rebel group, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, says it is fighting for greater rights in Iran.
The city of Mahabad is home to 190,000 people — most of them Kurds and Sunni Muslims. Iran is predominantly Shiite.
Mahabad was once the capital of the self-proclaimed republic of Kurdistan in Iran. Iran's armed forces recaptured Mahabad in 1946.
