Tehran, Iran ? Iran’s president on Wednesday blamed “the occupiers of Iraq” – inferring the United States and Britain – for two bombings that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

The foreign minister said the bombers were supported by the British military, which is based in southern Iraq. Ahvaz has a history of violence involving members of Iran’s Arab minority.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office called the allegations “ludicrous.” A group seeking independence for the Ahvaz region later claimed responsibility.

State television said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a decree ordering his foreign minister and intelligence minister to investigate the possibility that “foreign hands” were responsible for Tuesday’s blasts inside a bank and outside a state environmental agency building. Forty-six people were wounded, the official Islamic Republic News Agency has reported.

Ahmadinejad and his entire Cabinet had been expected to visit Ahvaz on the day of the bombings to address local issues, but the president canceled the visit.