Eight reported killed in terrorist attack on Iranian military parade
"Shooting began by several gunmen from behind the stand during the
parade. There are several killed and injured," a correspondent told
state television.
Eight or nine military personnel are reported killed after gunmen opened
fire during a military parade in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz
on Saturday, Iranian media reported.
"Shooting began by several gunmen from behind the stand during the
parade. There are several killed and injured," a correspondent told
state television.More than 20 were injured in the attack, local
officials told ISNA. Of the four attackers, two were killed by security
forces and two were arrested, the officials said.
Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers were wearing military dress and
that the shooting lasted for several minutes, the semi-official Iranian
Student News Agency (ISNA) reported. Participants and spectators of the
parade threw themselves to the ground at the sound of the gunfire.
State television blamed "takfiri elements," a reference to Islamist
militants, for the attack in Ahvaz, the center of Khuzestan province,
which has been the site of sporadic protests by Iran's Arab minority.
A spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps blamed the attack
on a local Ahvaz terrorist group, and said that the attackers directed
their fire at civilians in the crowd as well as members of the armed
forces participating in the parade, ISNA reported.
This is not the only recent terrorist incident on Iranian soil. Last
June, Islamic State suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Iran's
parliament and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran, killing
twelve. Armed militias affiliated with Kurdish and Balochi separatist
movements continue to carry out armed attacks on Iranian military and
state institutions.
The parade in Ahvaz, and others held around the country, marks the 37th
anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, the longest and
bloodiest conflict in Iran's modern history.Speaking at an event in
Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected US President Donald
Trump's threats and condemnation of the country's missile program.
"America will suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein," Rouhani said in a
speech carried live by state television. "Iran will not abandon its
defensive weapons ... including its missiles that make America so
angry."
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