TEHERAN: A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people yesterday, including six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders, in Iran's turbulent southeast, in an attack blamed on foreign-backed elements, Iranian media reported.

State media said a local rebel group was suspected of staging the attack, the worst on the elite Revolutionary Guards in recent years, which injured another 40 people at a meeting of tribal chiefs.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered authorities to swiftly track down and punish those behind the suicide attack.