TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- A bomb exploded on Wednesday in a mosque in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, a volatile region close to the Pakistani border, local semi-official news agency Fars reported.

    Local police was quoted by Fars as saying that no casualties were reported, only some damage to the properties in the explosion in Zahedan's Al-Ghadir mosque.

    According to initial reports, an unidentified man, who arrived on a motorcycle, carried the bomb and tried to enter the mosque, police officer Salah Asgharpour said.

    But the man failed to enter the mosque and the explosive device was placed in the kitchen, Asgharpour said, adding that the bomb then went off and caused minor damage.

    In the past few years, Iran has been hit by a string of bomb attacks which the authorities blamed on a Sunni group called Jundallah, mostly in its southeastern provinces bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.

    Iran also blamed the United States, Britain and some other Western countries behind these attacks and accused them of destabilizing the Islamic Republic, a charge denied by Washington and London.