Tehran rips U.S. remarks on attacks

Iran’s foreign minister denounced on Thursday the United States’ response to a pair of deadly assaults in Tehran as “repugnant,” as the death toll in the attacks rose to 17, with 52 others wounded.

Armed followers of the Islamic State group carried out brazen attacks on two high-profile sites Wednesday — the parliament building, and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic — adding to tensions in the Middle East. It was the first time the militant group had carried out a significant operation in Iran.

President Trump issued a statement Wednesday mourning the attacks, but added: “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”

That elicited an angry response Thursday from Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who helped negotiate a landmark nuclear deal that Iran, the United States and other countries reached in 2015. “Repugnant WH statement & Senate sanctions as Iranians counter terror backed by U.S. clients,” Zarif wrote on Twitter. “Iranian people reject such U.S. claims of friendship.”

Also on Thursday, the government released photographs of five men who were killed by security forces Thursday: four in the siege of parliament, and one in an assault on the mausoleum. It disclosed only their first names, saying it did not want to release surnames because of security and privacy concerns for their families.

Security camera footage from inside the parliament building shows three of the attackers entering a public area and opening fire.

The five men left Iran to fight for the terrorist group in Mosul, Iraq, and in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital, according to a government statement. They returned to Iran last July or August.