Iran has warned the US and Israel to expect a ‘devastating’ response after accusing them of being involved in a deadly attack on a military parade in the country.
Funerals are taking place today after gunmen killed 25 people, including 12 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary guards, and wounded 60 at a parade in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz.
Both ISIS and Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement which seeks a separate state in oil-rich Khuzestan province, have claimed responsibility.
But Senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have said the Ahvaz attack was carried out by militants trained by Gulf states and Israel, and backed by America.
‘You have seen our revenge before … You will see that our response will be crushing and devastating and you will regret what you have done,’ deputy IRGC head Hossein Salami said in a speech before the funeral of the victims in Ahvaz, broadcast live on the state television.
Meanwhile, Iran yesterday summoned diplomats from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain over their ‘hosting of some members of the terrorist group’.
Thousands of people packed the streets of the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz to mourn the victims of Saturday’s assault
Caskets of those who died in the attack are displayed in Ahvaz, Iran, this morning as thousands gathered for funerals
Gunmen killed 25 people, including 12 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary guards, and wounded 60 when they opened fire at the event in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz
The British charge d’affaires ‘was told that it is not acceptable that the spokesman for the mercenary Al-Ahwazi group be allowed to claim responsibility for this terrorist act through a London-based TV network,’ said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.
Britain said its diplomat had extended the country’s condolences to Tehran and that Iranian officials were planning to lodge a formal complaint with the United Kingdom’s media watchdog, Ofcom.
Ghasemi also said Iran expected the Danish and Dutch governments to ‘hand over the perpetrators of this attack and anyone related to them to Iran for a fair trial’.
Denmark said there would be consequences if any such links were established, while the Netherlands said it had heard the Iranian version of events and offered its condolences.
Thousands of people packed the streets of the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz to mourn the victims of Saturday’s assault.
Iran has declared a national day of mourning. Public offices, banks, schools and universities will be closed in Khuzestan province
Thousands of people gathered in the south-western Iranian city of Ahvaz for the funeral of those killed during the attack
Thousands of mourners gathered at the city’s Sarallah Mosque on the Taleghani junction, carrying caskets in the sweltering heat
Others, mainly young people wearing ethnic clothes of the region’s Arab minority, held large photographs of those slain at Saturday’s parade in Ahvaz, the Khuzestan provincial capital, where militants disguised as soldiers had opened fire at marching troops and onlookers
Of the 25 people killed in the massacre, 12 were from Ahvaz and the rest from elsewhere in Khuzestan
Others, mainly young people wearing ethnic clothes of the region’s Arab minority, held large photographs of those slain at Saturday’s parade in Ahvaz, the Khuzestan provincial capital, where militants disguised as soldiers had opened fire at marching troops and onlookers. Of the 25 people killed, 12 were from Ahvaz and the rest from elsewhere in Khuzestan.
The procession walked down the Naderi and Zand Streets, many weeping and beating their chests, a traditional way of showing grief. Mourners played drums, cymbals and horns, according to local Arabic custom.
Cries and wails erupted when the casket of a local Ahvaz hero, 54-year-old Hossein Monjazi, a disabled war veteran and Revolutionary Guard member who had lost a leg and a hand in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s, was brought out.
Monjazi was in the wheelchair watching the parade when the gunshots erupted and was unable to find shelter from the hail of bullets.
The attack, one of the worst against the most powerful military force of the Islamic Republic, struck a blow at its security establishment at a time when the United States and its Gulf allies are working to isolate Tehran.
Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, said a large network of suspects had already been arrested in connection with the attack, the judiciary’s news agency Mizan reported.
Iran has declared a national day of mourning. Public offices, banks, schools and universities will be closed in Khuzestan province.
Four assailants fired on a viewing stand in Ahvaz where Iranian officials had gathered to watch an annual event marking the start of the Islamic Republic’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.
ISIS’s Amaq agency posted a video of three men in a vehicle who it said were on their way to carry out the attack.
A man wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with what appears to be a Revolutionary Guard logo discussed the impending attack in Farsi in the video.
‘We are Muslims, they are kafirs (non-believers),’ the man says. He adds: ‘We will destroy them with a strong and guerrilla-style attack, inshallah (God willing).’
The procession walked down the Naderi and Zand Streets, many weeping and beating their chests, a traditional way of showing grief. Mourners played drums, cymbals and horns, according to local Arabic custom
Iran has warned the US and Israel to expect a ‘devastating’ response after accusing them of being involved in a deadly attack (pictured) on a military parade in the country
President Hassan Rouhani (pictured on Saturday) has accused a U.S.-allied regional country of supporting the perpetrators
Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement which seeks a separate state in oil-rich Khuzestan province, also claimed responsibility.
Senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have said the Ahvaz attack was carried out by militants trained by Gulf states and Israel, and backed by America. But it is unlikely the IRGC will strike any of these foes directly.
President Hassan Rouhani has accused a U.S.-allied regional country of supporting the perpetrators.
The Guards could put on a show of strength by firing missiles at opposition groups operating in Iraq or Syria that may be linked to the militants who staged the attack.
They are also likely to enforce a tight security policy in Khuzestan province, arresting any perceived domestic opponents including civil rights activists.