TEHRAN (AFP) A bomb tore through a military parade in Iran on Wednesday killing 12 people as the Islamic republic showcased its weaponry at events marking the start 30 years ago of the bloody Iran-Iraq war. Among the dead were the wives of two commanders, an official said, while medics reported 81 people wounded and fearing the toll will rise. The bomb, placed just 50 metres from the podium at the parade in the ethnically Kurdish northwestern town of Mahabad in West Ajarbaijan province, exploded at around 10:20am (0650 GMT), officials said. The number of martyrs of the incident reached 12, the head of Irans medical emergency services, Gholam Reza Massoumi, told ISNA news agency. So far no groups or people have claimed responsibility for this crime, deputy provincial governor Issa Ghanbari told ISNA, adding that the victims were all women except for a six-year-old boy. You cannot give exact figures of the dead and injured yet as it has been a horrible catastrophe and every minute new numbers come out, local medical emergency chief Hamid Reza Emrani told ISNA. Provincial governor Vahid Jalalzadeh blamed the United States and counter-revolutionaries for the attack. This act has foreign origins. Unfortunately America and its allies are present in the region and their support for counter-revolutionaries and hypocrites has been proven, he said on state television. The bombing came as Iran showed off its military hardware at anniversary parades across the country to commemorate the 1980-88 war with Iraq in which an estimated one million people died on both sides. The longer-range Sejil, Shahab-3 and Ghadr-1 missiles were the star attractions at the main parade in Tehran, which was attended by chief of staff Maj-Gen Hassan Firouzabadi. With a range of 1,800 to 2,000km, the missiles are theoretically capable of hitting Irans arch-foe Israel. Also on display were five of Irans Karar (Assailant) unmanned bomber aircraft, which were unveiled in August and have a nominal range of 1,000km. Firouzabadi insisted that Irans arsenal was for defensive purposes only. The increased military capability of Iran is only a deterrent against aggressors and for defending our country against enemy threats, he said in a speech delivered before the bomb attack in Mahabad. We can confidently tell people that our military might is superior in the region but our military superiority is not limited to the number of planes and material calculations, he said, without elaborating. At Wednesdays parade in Tehran, Iran also showed off a blue-beret unit of 180 men together with armoured personnel-carriers emblazoned with UN insignia. Army chief Ataollah Salehi said Iran has been ready for several years to provide a group of peacekeeping soldiers to the United Nations.