Deadly attack shakes Iran city
TEHRAN VOWS CRUSHING RESPONSE AFTER GUNMEN KILL 29 DURING MILITARY PARADE
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani vowed a “crushing response” after gunmen shot dead at least 29 people, almost half of them members of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards, yesterday in an attack on an Iranian military parade.
An Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement called the Ahvaz National Resistance, which seeks a separate state in oil-rich Khuzestan province, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Daesh terrorist group also claimed responsibility for the rare assault in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. Neither claim provided evidence. All four attackers were killed.
The bloodshed struck a significant blow to security in the oil producer, which has been relatively stable compared with neighbouring countries that have grappled with upheaval since the 2011 uprisings across the Middle East. Activists said the Revolutionary Guards had arrested several people in Ahvaz after the attack.
“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the smallest threat will be crushing,” Rouhani said on his official website, after addressing a similar parade in Tehran to mark the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq.
Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior spokesman for armed forces, said the attackers had hidden weapons in an area near the parade route several days in advance.
Militants shot dead at least 29 people, including 12 Revolutionary Guards, in an attack yesterday on an Iranian military parade claimed by Daesh, as Tehran accused a US ally in the region of the assault.
The attack in the southwestern city of Ahvaz came as the country marked the anniversary of the start of its 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussain’s Iraq and prompted President Hassan Rouhani to warn of a “crushing response”.
“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the smallest threat will be crushing,” Rouhani said on his official website. “Those who give intelligence and propaganda support to these terrorists must answer for it.”
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet that the attack near the Iraqi border was carried out by “terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime”.
“Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their US masters accountable for such attacks,” he wrote.
Daesh terrorists said via their propaganda mouthpiece Amaq that its fighters attacked a gathering of Iranian forces in Ahvaz.
The city lies in Khuzestan, a province bordering Iraq that has a large ethnic Arab community and has seen separatist violence in the past that Iran has blamed on its regional rivals.
State television gave a casualty toll of 29 dead and 57 wounded, while official news agency IRNA said those killed ■ ■ included women and children among spectators at the rally. Many of the wounded were in critical condition.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said the dead included a young girl and a former serviceman in a wheelchair.
“Of the four terrorists, three were sent to hell at the scene, while the fourth who had been wounded and arrested went to hell moments ago due to his severe wounds,” Shekarchi told state television.
A video on state television’s website showed confused soldiers at the scene of the attack. Standing in from of the stand, one asked: “Where did they come from?” Another responded: “From behind us.”
Zarif did not specify which regional government he held responsible for the shooting.
Zarif vowed Iran would “respond TURKMENISTAN
Rouhani defiant
The attack in Ahvaz came as President Rouhani was among dignitaries at the main anniversary parade in Tehran.
In a keynote speech, Rouhani vowed to boost Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities despite Western concerns that were cited by his US counterpart Donald Trump in May when he abandoned a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran.
“We will never decrease our defensive capabilities... we will increase them day by day,” Rouhani said at a military parade. “The fact that the missiles anger you shows they are our most effective weapons,” he said, referring to the West.