Fatal Blast In Iran

Mortars struck a publishing house Saturday evening in central Tehran, near key government offices including the Iranian president's office and Parliament. One person was killed and four were injured, Tehran television reported.

Windows of the Golbang publishing house, located across the street from the Judiciary building and top policy-making offices, were shattered and its walls pocked and broken in areas.

Two cars parked out front were destroyed in the attack, claimed by an Iranian opposition group trying to overthrow the Islamic government.

"We heard several explosions and it was just like the war," said publishing house manager Abolghasem Hosseini, referring to the 1980-88 war between Iran and Iraq. "And the next thing I remember, everything was upside-down."

The official Islamic Republic News Agency did not provide details about the number or nature of the blasts, which it described as a "terrorist attack." Tehran television said there were five explosions. Mortar debris was visible in the area.

The only official building damaged was the headquarters of the office that coordinates Friday prayers. Some windows were shattered and shrapnel slightly damaged a wall.

One man, Mohammad Alijani, a 29-year-old employee at the publishing house, died in the explosions and four people were injured, Tehran television said. IRNA had earlier said that authorities did not believe there were any casualties.

A witness told The Associated Press that paramedics carried away a woman with abdominal wounds. Further information on the injured was not available.

Tehran television said the explosions were the work of "the hypocrites," a reference to the Mujahedeen Khalq opposition group. The Iraq-based group seeks the overthrow of Iran's Islamic government and has more than 30,000 men and women with military training in camps near the Iranian border.

In a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, the group claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said targeted the home and office of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Other government offices in the area include those of President Mohammad Khatami, the parliament, the judiciary and the expediency council, a policy-making body led by former president Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Within three hours of the explosions, a dozen municipal workers had swept away the broken glass and debris and the closed-off streets were reopened.

Written by Hasan Sarbakhshian