ISIS says it’s behind double Iran attacks
Assailants target Parliament and Islamic Republic founder’s shrine
If the claim of responsibility is confirmed, it could be the group’s first major attack inside Iran.
Armed attackers struck Iran’s Parliament and the shrine of the country’s former supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Wednesday, killing 12 and wounding 30 others in rare twin assaults, state media reported.
The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, quickly claimed responsibility and released a video through its Aamaq news agency that purported to show parts of the siege. At least four attackers were killed by Iranian security services.
Tehran Police Chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia said late Wednesday that five suspects had been detained for interrogation, according to a report in the semi-official ISNA news agency. Sajedinia did not give further details, the Associated Press reported.
President Trump said in a statement that Americans “grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran.” Trump also suggested that Iran may be par- tially responsible, saying “states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”
At least three attackers took part in the assault on Parliament in southern Tehran, one of whom may have blown himself up, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said. The attacks began when the assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles stormed the Parliament building during a normal legislative session.
At the shrine, dedicated to the founder of the Islamic Republic, the state-run IRNA news agency reported that an armed man blew himself up after four armed assailants went on a shooting spree. Other reports from the Fars news agency said the suicide bomber was a wom- an and that a second suicide vest was also defused.
Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari, Iran’s deputy interior minister, told Iran’s state TV that the male attackers may have been wearing women’s attire.
If the claim of responsibility is confirmed, it could be the group’s first major attack inside Iran. It would also quickly follow the attacks in London and Manchester, England, incidents the group also claimed, but authorities have not verified. A man who attacked police officers outside the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris Tuesday claimed allegiance to the group, but ISIS has not commented.
Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country. It has been fighting Sunni Muslim groups such as ISIS and al- Qaeda through proxies in Iraq and Syria.
Large-scale terror attacks inside Iran are relatively infrequent and Tehran is a tightly-controlled capital city, although several bombings have taken place in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The last major attack in Iran was in 2010 when a Sunni extremist group carried out a suicide attack against a mosque in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, killing 39 people.
Kurdish groups have carried out small-scale attacks against Iranian security forces in northwest Iran.