Attacks hit Khomeini’s tomb, Iran parliament
TEHRAN, Iran — The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility Wednesday for attacks on Iran’s parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40 others.
Tehran Police Chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia announced late Wednesday that five suspects had been detained for interrogation, according to a report in the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency. Sajed--
inia did not offer any further details.
Reza Seifollahi, an official in the country’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the independent Shargh newspaper as saying that the perpetrators of the attacks were Iranians. He did not elaborate.
The bloodshed shocked the country and came as emboldened Sunni Arab states — backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — are hardening their stance against Shiite-ruled Iran.
The White House released a statement from Trump condemning the attacks in Tehran as terrorism and offering condolences but also implying that Iran is itself a sponsor of terrorism.
“We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,” the statement said. “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”
The Washington-based National Iranian American Council promptly rebuked what it called Trump’s “heartless message,” saying that presidents who “cannot genuinely recognize victims of terrorism are incapable of leading the fight against terror.”
In recent years, Iran has been heavily involved in conflicts in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State group, but had remained untouched by Islamic State violence around the world. Iran also has battled Saudi-backed Sunni groups in both countries.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks. A statement issued Wednesday evening stopped short of alleging direct Saudi involvement but called it “meaningful” that the attacks followed Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he strongly asserted Washington’s support for Riyadh.
The statement said Saudi Arabia “constantly supports” terrorists, including the Islamic State, adding that the Islamic State claim of responsibility “reveals [Saudi Arabia’s] hand in this barbaric action.”
The “spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged,” the Revolutionary Guard statement said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, used the attacks to defend Iran’s involvement in wars abroad. He told a group of students that if “Iran had not resisted,” it would have faced even more troubles.
“The Iranian nation will go forward,” he added.
The violence began in midmorning when assailants with Kalashnikov rifles and explosives stormed the parliament complex where a legislative session had been in progress. The attack lasted for hours, and one of the attackers blew himself up inside, according to Iran’s state TV.
Images circulating in Iranian media showed gunmen holding rifles near the windows of the complex. One showed a toddler being handed through a first-floor window to safety outside as an armed man looks on.
The Islamic State’s Aamaq news agency released a 24-second video purportedly shot inside the complex, showing a bloody, lifeless body on the floor next to a desk.
“Oh, Sunni people in Iran, don’t you feel the pain from those shackles that are tied around your wrists and ankles,” one militant said in the video, calling on them to wage battle against Shiites in their “dens and gatherings” in Tehran and other Iranian cities.
A reporter saw several police snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings. Police helicopters circled the parliament building, and all mobile phone lines from inside were disconnected.
Shops were closed as gunfire rang out and officials urged people to avoid public transportation. Witnesses said the attackers fired from the parliament building’s fourth floor at people in the streets.
“I was passing by one of the streets. I thought that children were playing with fireworks, but I realized people are hiding and lying down on the streets,” Ebrahim Ghanimi, who was around the parliament building, told The Associated Press. “With the help of a taxi driver, I reached a nearby alley.”
As the parliament attack unfolded, gunmen and suicide bombers also struck outside Khomeini’s mausoleum on Tehran’s southern outskirts. Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah to become Iran’s first supreme leader until his death in 1989.
Iran’s state broadcaster said a security guard was killed at the tomb and that one of the attackers was slain by security guards. A woman also was arrested. The revered shrine was not damaged.
The Interior Ministry said six assailants were killed — four at the parliament and two at the tomb. A senior Interior Ministry official told Iran’s state TV the male attackers wore women’s attire.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the attacks a cowardly act.
Saudi Arabia and Iran regularly accuse each other of supporting extremists in the region. Saudi Arabia has long pointed to the absence of Islamic State attacks in Iran as a sign of Iran’s culpability. For its part, Iran has cited Saudi Arabia’s support for jihadis and its backing of hard-line Sunni fighters in Syria.
On March 27, the Islamic State posted a 37-minute video in Farsi threatening Iran. The Clarion Project said the speakers claimed to represent various Iranian Sunni ethnic groups, such as the Baluchis and Ahvazis, and encouraged Iranian Sunnis to join the group.
Wednesday’s attacks, during the holy month of Ramadan that is observed by both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, came as the Islamic State is competing with al-Qaida for jihadi recruits.
Arab separatists are active in Iran’s southern city of Ahvaz, where they killed two policemen three weeks ago. Though most Iranians are Shiite, including separatists in Ahvaz, the eastern Baloch region is majority Sunni, although there are no recent census figures available. There is also a significant Sunni population in southern Hormozgan province.
The attacks drew condemnation from Iran’s allies — and also from the United States. That was notable because of the deep distrust between Tehran and Washington, which don’t have diplomatic relations.
State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said the U.S. expressed condolences to the victims and their families.
“The depravity of terrorism has no place in a peaceful, civilized world,” Nauert said.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin sent condolences and confirmed Russia’s willingness to aid its ally. Syria’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the attacks, which it said were backed by various governments that it did not specify.
The Islamic State often claims attacks around the world, even when links to the group cannot be confirmed. Iranian security officials have not said who might have been behind the attacks, although state media outlets called the assailants “terrorists.”
There are concerns that a doubling down on security could lead to a wider clampdown on the opposition in Iran. Rights group Amnesty International urged Iranian authorities to carry out impartial investigations into the attacks.
Iran views its parliament, or Majlis, as a symbol of participatory government in contrast to its main regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia and allied sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf. Last month, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, won re-election in a race against hard-line challengers.
Parliament is widely respected as a voice on domestic policies even though Khamenei has the final word on most international and security issues. The shrine of Khamenei’s predecessor, Khomeini, is a centerpiece of homage to the 1979 Islamic revolution, which overthrew Iran’s Western-allied monarchy.
The expansive complex around Khomeini’s tomb is both a spiritual and political testament to the Islamic revolution.
Attacks of this kind are rare in Iran’s capital, where security forces are deployed at prominent sites. The Revolutionary Guard Corps also maintains a vast network of informants and allies through a volunteer paramilitary force called the Basij.
The parliament building is in the center of the city, and Khomeini’s tomb complex is about 12 miles to the south.
Iran has suffered terrorist attacks in the past, but rarely in cities or the capital. Separatist groups and Sunni extremists have carried out bombings in the border region near Pakistan, including a suicide attack in 2010 that killed 39 people.