IRAN: Was it a bomb or an accident?

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Authorities upped the casualty count from a Saturday night explosion in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz to 12 dead and 202 injured.

The explosion took place in a Shiite Muslim house of worship during a talk by a controversial cleric. Mohammed Anjivinejad is known for his denunciations of the Wahhabi Islam that drives Sunni extremists, as well as the Bahai faith, a small religion born in Iran during the 19th century that Shiite clerics consider heretical [UPDATE: See note below]. Check out the English-language section of his group’s website.

Iranian officials are pulling out all stops to emphasize that the blast may not have been a politically motivated bombing but an accident. One official told the semi-official Fars news agency that the blast could have been an accident. According to province police chief Ali Moayeri:

Indeed, catastrophic accidents caused by gross negligence and incompetence are not at all uncommon in Iran.

The explosion coincided with an upswell of tensions between Iran and the U.S. over alleged Iranian support for Iraqi militants. Iran has accused the U.S. and its allies of backing anti-Iranian armed groups, including Iranian Arab separatists accused of a series of bombings in 2005 and 2006.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini said the government would have no official comment on the blast until the investigation was complete.

‘So far no group has taken responsibility,’ he said.

—Borzou Daragahi in Beirut and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

UPDATE: We added a comma after the word ‘extremists’ to distinguish between Wahabbi Islam, which drives Sunni extremists, and the Bahai faith, which is also denounced by the religious group but has nothing to do with Wahabbi Islam.