Death toll rises to 16 in Iran terror attacks

Adjust Comment Print

The semi-official ISNA news agency on Thursday quotes Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi as saying the matter is under investigation and it is "too soon to say" if Saudi Arabia was involved. Sajedinia did not offer any further details.

Iranian authorities have said assailants were Iranian nationals, adding they have arrested six suspects, including one woman, since the attack Wednesday in Tehran. He did not elaborate.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was praying for the victims, but added that "states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote".

Larijani also criticized a Wednesday decision by the U.S. Senate to move forward on a new set of sanctions against Iran, including its elite Revolutionary Guards, a move that came on the same day as the Tehran attacks. The Islamic State group claimed the attacks. CNN also noted that "gun ownership is heavily controlled in Iran, raising speculation that the attackers smuggled weapons into the country".

"This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the US president and the [Saudi] backward leaders who support terrorists", according to statement by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The violence comes amid heightened tension in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states cutting ties with Qatar over alleged support for Islamist militants and closer ties with Iran.

"The five known terrorists. after joining ISIS, left the country and participated in crimes carried out by this terrorist group in Mosul andRaqqa", the ministry said in a statement.

The "spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged", the Revolutionary Guard statement said.

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses a group of students in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 7, 2017. He told a group of students that if "Iran had not resisted", it would have faced even more troubles.

The assault was the first claimed by the ISIS in Iran, and was the worst terror strike to hit the nation in years.

Gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs entered Parliament yesterday morning. One terrorist committed suicide by blowing himself up. In images circulating in Iranian media, gunmen were seen holding rifles near the windows of parliament.

Talktalk Telecom Group PLC (TALK.L) Moving 2.24% in Session
The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.61. Goldman Sachs Grp holds 0% in Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA) or 315,441 shares. (NASDAQ:SCVL) or 227,590 shares.

The IS group's Aamaq news agency released a 24-second video purportedly shot inside the parliament building during the siege.

An Associated Press reporter saw several police snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings.

Police helicopters circled over the parliament building. Shops in the area were shuttered, and gunfire could be heard. It took four hours before Iran's security forces killed four of the attackers.

All the attackers were killed. It was not clear whether the shrine attackers were women, as earlier reported, or just wearing female clothing.

Saudi Arabia and Iran regularly accuse each other of supporting extremists in the region.

"Iranian people reject such US claims of friendship", Zarif tweeted.

The attacks are likely to deepen enmity and sharpen the regional battle for power between the two rivals. Iranians will not be intimidated by such attacks.

Reportedly, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on Iran's Parliament.

"Iran is an active and effective pillar in the fight against terrorists and they want to damage it", he said. There is also a significant Sunni population in southern Hormozgan province. That was notable because of the deep distrust between Tehran and Washington, which don't have diplomatic relations.

During a massive funeral ceremony in Tehran following Friday prayers, thousands chanted "Down with the U.S." and "Death to Al-Saud", the Saudi royal family, while carrying coffins of victims. NPR's Michele Kelemen notes that the State Department condemned the attack and wrote that "the depravity of terrorism has no place in a peaceful, civilized world". Messages of support were sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Syrian foreign ministry.

According to a CNN report this was a "symbolically significant" target because "the tomb houses the body of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's founder and first supreme leader, and it is a popular destination for tourists and pilgrims".

Comments