U.S. soldiers guard at the site of a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 26, 2015. At least two people were killed while several others wounded after a suicide bombing targeted the Turkish embassy's vehicles in front of the Iranian Embassy here on Thursday morning, sources said.Photo:Xinhua

Iran said Saturday it has arrested the head of a US-based "terrorist group" accused of being behind a deadly 2008 bombing in the southern city of Shiraz and of other, unsuccessful attacks.

"Jamshid Sharmahd, who was leading armed and sabotage operations inside Iran, is now in the powerful hands" of Iran's security forces, state television said.

It did not elaborate on where or when the leader of the opposition royalist group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran was detained.

Iran slammed its arch enemy the US for hosting Sharmahd and "supporting known terrorists who have claimed responsibility for several terrorist acts inside" the country.

"This regime must answer for its support of this terrorist group and other groups and criminals who orchestrate armed, sabotage and terrorist operations against the people of Iran from inside America and spill Iranians' blood," a foreign ministry statement said.

The intelligence ministry said Sharmahd had orchestrated the April 12, 2008 bombing in a packed mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people and wounded 215.

Iran hanged three men convicted of the bombing in 2009, saying they had ties to the monarchist group.

It said they had been taking orders from an Iranian US-backed "CIA agent" identified at the time only as "Jamshid" to try to assassinate a high-ranking official in Iran.

They were 21-year-old Mohsen Eslamian and Ali Asghar Pashtar, 20, as well as Rouzbeh Yahyazadeh, 32.

The three were found guilty of being "mohareb" (enemies of God) and "corruption on earth" by a revolutionary court in Tehran. Iran hanged two other convicted members of the group in 2010, who had "confessed to obtaining explosives and planning to assassinate officials."

AFP