Some 35 people were wounded, 15 critically, in the blast in the city of Mahabad, in a predominantly Kurdish area near the borders of Iraq and Turkey, the ISNA news agency reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but local officials blamed militants, possibly helped by foreign countries wishing to harm the Islamic republic during “Sacred Defense” celebrations, an annual ceremony for the Iranian military.

“This bomb was a time-bomb planted on a tree among the people and it went off at 10.20 (0650 GMT),” the website of state-run television IRIB quoted a military official as saying.

Vahid Jalalzadeh, the provincial governor of Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, speculated that the United States — Iran’s greatest foe — may have had a hand in the bombing. “As far as the investigations show (the incident) has a foreign source, he told Iranian TV.

“Their support for counterrevolutionary hypocrites and terrorist groups in the region has been clearly proved and today’s action was one of the incidents which was (staged) by the conspiracy of foreign governments.”

“Counterrevolutionary groups, by inserting themselves among the people attending the armed forces parade, showed their heinous face,” said Jalalzadeh.

At the main national parade, held in Tehran before the bombing, the armed forces chief of staff blamed US for supporting the government’s opponents inside Iran.

Television footage showed troops marching past a ceremonial podium when a blast happened. Pictures of the aftermath showed blood on the ground, shoes and an abandoned pram.

In Mahabad, Jalalzadeh said Wednesday’s explosion happened some 50 meters from the podium and that two military officials’ wives were among the dead.

No casualties were reported among the military personnel and political dignitaries attending the annual parade — one of several held across the country to commemorate Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s.

“(US Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton has expressed concern and disappointment with (the US) inability to take military action against Iran and decided (instead) to create sedition inside Iran,” Hassan Firouzabadi said.

The attack occurred as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York amid a standoff between Tehran and major powers over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making weapons.

Mahabad was the capital of a short-lived Soviet-backed “Republic of Kurdistan” in 1946, which was crushed within a few months.