TEHRAN, Feb 14: Eleven members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were killed on Wednesday when a car bomb ripped through a bus carrying them to a base in a sensitive south-eastern border province, official media reported.

The bus was taking them from their housing compound in the city of Zahedan to a military base just after daybreak when gunfire forced it to stop in front of the booby-trapped car, which then exploded.

According to unconfirmed website reports, the attack was claimed by a shadowy Sunni militant group, Jundallah, which has been blamed for a string of armed incidents in volatile Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Footage broadcast on Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam television showed the bus, a twisted frame of wreckage, and a large crowd gathered at the scene.

All the dead were from the Guards, Iran's elite ideological army, official media said. Ethna Ashari said 31 people were wounded.

IRNA reported that two militants carrying grenades and camcorders had been apprehended by the public and arrested while three others were detained later.

City governor Hassan Ali Nouri told IRNA the main “agent” behind the bombing had been killed by security forces.—AFP