Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said the assault was the handiwork of “regional terror sponsors”, language that usually refers to Iran’s enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel, and “their U.S. masters”.
Terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime have attacked Ahvaz. Children and journos among casualties. Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their US masters accountable for such attacks. Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives. pic.twitter.com/WG1J1wgVD9
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 22, 2018
Zarif on Twitter also warned that “Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives” after the attack in Ahvaz.
He said that children and journalists were casualties in the attack, and added that the gunmen were “terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime.”
A spokesperson told Reuters that an anti-government Arab group, the Ahvaz National Resistance, has claimed responsibility.
Yaghub Hur Totsari, a spokesman 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 organization of all armed movements, was behind the attack but did not specify which group.
State television blamed “takfiri elements”, a reference to Sunni Muslim militants, for the attack. Ahvaz is in the centre of Khuzestan province, where there have been sporadic protests by the Arab minority in predominantly Shi’ite Iran.
What happened?
The attack started at 09:00 local time and appeared to involve four gunmen.
State television said the attack targeted a stand where Iranian officials had gathered to watch an annual event marking the start of the Islamic Republic’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.
?9 killed, 8 wounded in an Attack on a military parade in Iran , video shows the moment of the attack pic.twitter.com/Mpbfn5JQXJ
— Steven nabil (@thestevennabil) September 22, 2018
The assailants fired at civilians and attempted to attack military officials on the podium.
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.
Two of the gunmen were killed by security forces, while the other two were arrested, according to the local deputy governor, Ali Hosein Hoseinzadeh.
“Shooting began by several gunmen from behind the stand during the parade. There are several killed and injured,” a correspondent told state television.
The semi-official news agency Mehr said further shooting broke out as some of the attackers who managed to escape were being chased.
A video on state television’s website showed confused soldiers at the scene of the attack.
Iran was holding similar parades in several cities including the capital Tehran and the port of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have surged in recent years, with the two countries supporting opposite sides in wars in Syria and Yemen and rival political parties in Iraq and Lebanon.
Attacks on the military are rare in Iran.
A year ago in the first attack claimed by Islamic State in Tehran, 18 people were killed at the parliament and mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder and first supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.
