As death toll rises, Iran says assailants in Tehran attacks likely were nationals
At least five assailants in the deadly Tehran attacks were recruited by the Islamic State group from inside Iran, the government said Thursday, a strong indication they were Iranian nationals.
The new detail about the assailants, killed during the Wednesday attacks, came as Iranian news media reported the civilian casualty toll had risen to 17 dead and 52 wounded, and the police presence in the Iranian capital increased noticeably.
The assault aftermath also was punctuated by new acrimony between Iranian leaders and the Trump administration, which expressed condolences on Wednesday coupled with an assertion that their country had fallen “victim to the evil they promote.” The assault also coincided with Senate action advancing new sanctions on Iran.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the U.S. response in a Twitter message as “repugnant.”
Five men and a woman armed with rifles and explosives carried out simultaneous assaults on Tehran’s parliament building and the tomb of Iran’s revolutionary founder in broad daylight, surprising security forces and causing panic and mayhem that lasted for hours. The Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group, asserted responsibility.
Official Iranian news accounts said the men were killed and the woman blew herself up.
Security lapses exposed
It was Iran’s worst terrorist attack in years, exposing security lapses and undermining government assertions that the country is a beacon of calm in the volatile Middle East.
The attack also appeared to be the first time that Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim nation, had been successfully targeted by the Islamic State, which considers Shiites to be religious traitors.
A government statement issued Thursday about the attack said the male assailants had left Iran at an unspecified time to fight for the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital.
They returned to Iran last July or August under the leadership of a commander with the nom de guerre Abu Aisha, the statement said, and had “intended to carry out terrorist operations in religious cities.”
The statement did not specify whether they were Iranian citizens or provide further information about the female assailant.
But Reza Seifollahi, deputy chief of the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the independent newspaper Shargh as saying the five men were Iranian.
If true, that would be an unusual acknowledgment, given the antipathy between the Islamic State and Iran. Most of Iran’s 80 million people are Shiites, although sizable Sunni minorities inhabit some border regions and the Islamic State has sought to recruit from among them.
Iranian accents
In March, the Islamic State released a video featuring Iranian fighters, in which it called on Sunnis in Iran to form cells and carry out attacks on Shiite forces, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzed the video.
Several witnesses to the attacks reported that the assailants had spoken Arabic with an Iranian accent, suggesting that they were ethnic Arabs living in Iran.
In Khuzestan, an oilrich province that borders Iraq and that is home to many Arabs, both Sunni and Shiite, a video emerged two weeks ago of men in black carrying weapons and shouting slogans on the streets of Ahvaz, the provincial capital. They were arrested the next day, the Intelligence Ministry said.