Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late Saturday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing martyred 25 people in the southeast of the country.

The device was defused after the Kish Air aircraft with 131 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, news agencies reported.

The incident occurred less than two weeks before the Islamic Republic holds a presidential election in which the conservative incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces a challenge from reformers.

"Minutes after the ... Kish Air flight took off with 131 passengers from Ahvaz to Tehran, security personnel found a homemade bomb" on board, Fars reported.

Fars gave no further details about the incident, which was also reported by other media.

Thursday, a bombing in a popular Shi'ite mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan martyred 25 people and wounded more than 120.

Three men convicted of involvement in the mosque bombing were executed in public Saturday in Zahedan.

A terrorist group named Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which Iran says is part of the Islamist al Qaeda network and backed by the United States, said it was behind the bombing, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said.

Thursday's bombing was the deadliest such incident in Iran since its 1980-88 war with Iraq. A blast in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz martyred 14 people in April last year but the country has otherwise been relatively peaceful.

End Item/ 129