Iran president blames US for military attack
MILITANTS KILL 25 AT PARADE
IRAN’S President Hassan Rouhani has said an unnamed US-allied country in the Persian Gulf was behind an attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded around 70.
Mr Rouhani did not identify those behind the attack, which was claimed by an Arab separatist group.
He could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain – close US military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.
“All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes,” Mr Rouhani said.
The attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual military parade in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out in Ahvaz.
The region’s Arab separatists, once only known for night-time attacks on oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault.
Iran summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands for allegedly harbouring “members of the terrorist group” that launched the attack.