Separatists claim attack during military parade
Militants disguised as soldiers opened fire Saturday, local time, on an annual Iranian military parade in the country’s oil-rich southwest, killing at least 25 people and wounding over 60 in the deadliest terror attack to strike the country in nearly a decade.
Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out at the parade in Ahvaz, the chaos captured live on state television.
The region’s Arab separatists, once only known for night-time attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the brazen assault.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blamed regional countries and their ‘‘US masters’’ for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.
‘‘Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defence of Iranian lives,’’ Zarif wrote on Twitter.
The attack came as rows of Revolutionary Guardsmen marched down Ahvaz’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Boulevard. It was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran’s long 1980s war with Iraq, commemorations known as the ‘‘Sacred Defence Week.’’
Journalists and onlookers turned to look towards the first shots, then the rows of marchers broke as soldiers and civilians sought cover under sustained gunfire. Iranian soldiers used their bodies at time to shield civilians in the melee, with one Guardsman in full dress uniform and sash carrying away a bloodied boy.
‘‘Oh God! Go, go, go! Lie down! Lie down!’’ one man screamed as a woman fled with her baby.
In the aftermath, paramedics tended to the wounded as soldiers, some bloodied, helped their comrades to ambulances. At least 25 people died in the attack and more than 60 were wounded, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting.
‘‘We suddenly realised that some armed people wearing fake military outfits started attacking the comrades from behind (the stage) and then opened fire on women and children,’’ an unnamed wounded soldier told state TV.
‘‘They were just aimlessly shooting around and did not have a specific target.’’
State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed, with three dying during the attack and one later succumbing to his wounds at a hospital.
President Hassan Rouhani ordered Iran’s Intelligence Ministry to immediately investigate the attack. –