The number of people killed in a shooting attack on a military parade in southwestern Iran on Saturday has risen to 24, the official state news agency IRNA said.
“There are a number of non-military victims, including women and children who had come to watch the parade,” the agency quoted an unnamed official source as saying.
Gunmen fired on a military parade in southwestern Iran on Saturday, killing 11 members of the Revolutionary Guards, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, in one of the worst attacks on the elite force.
An anti-government Arab group, the Ahvaz National Resistance, is responsible for Saturday’s attack on a military parade in Iran’s southwestern city of Ahvaz, a spokesperson told Reuters.
Yaghub Hur Totsari, spokesperson for one of the two groups that identify themselves as the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, said the Ahvaz National Resistance, an umbrella organisation of all armed movements, was behind the attack but did not specify which group. Totsari identified one of the assailants by the initials A.M., without elaborating.
State television said the assault, which wounded more than 30 people, targeted a stand where Iranian officials were gathered to watch an annual event marking the start of the Islamic Republic’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.
A video distributed to Iranian media showed soldiers crawling on the ground as gunfire blazed in their direction. One soldier picked up a gun and got to his feet as women and children fled for their lives.
Ali Hosein Hoseinzadeh, deputy governor in Khuzestan province, was quoted as saying the death toll was expected to rise. One of those killed was a journalist. The bloodshed struck a blow to security in OPEC oil producer Iran, which has been relatively stable compared with neighbouring Arab countries that have faced upheaval since the 2011 uprisings across the region.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Iran’s southwest. State television blamed “takfiri elements” for the attack.
Ahvaz is in the centre of Khuzestan province, where there have been sporadic protests by the Arab minority in mainly Shia Iran.
Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif blamed the bloodshed on “regional terror sponsors”, language that usually refers to Iran’s enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel, and “their US masters”, and vowed that Tehran would respond decisively.
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.” Four militants carried out the attack and two of them were killed, according to ISNA.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack in the city of Ahvaz. Iran was holding similar parades in several cities including
the capital Tehran and the port of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.
“Shooting began by several gunmen from behind the stand during the parade. There are several killed and injured,” a correspondent told state television.
Published in Daily Times, September 23rd 2018.