Shooters and suicide bombers attacked Iran’s parliament and the shrine of its revolutionary leader yesterday, killing at least 12 people, wounding dozens and igniting an hours-long siege at the legislature that ended with four attackers dead.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attacks, marking the first time the Sunni extremists have taken responsibility for an assault in Shiite-majority Iran.
The attacks began mid-morning when assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles stormed the parliament building.
One of the attackers later blew himself up inside, where a session had been in progress, according to a statement carried by an Iranian state-run TV channel.
Iranian Vice Minister of the Interior Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari told the channel the apparently male attackers wore women’s attire.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency later reported that the siege ended with four of the attackers killed.
Mizan Online, an Iranian state-run news Web site, said 12 people were killed and 42 wounded in the two attacks.
The IS group’s Aamaq news agency released a 24-second video purportedly shot inside the parliament building during the siege.
The video, circulated online, shows a gunman and a bloody, lifeless body of a man lying on the ground next to a desk.
A voice on the video praises Allah and says in Arabic: “Do you think we will leave? We will remain, God willing.”
Another voice repeats the same words.
The two appeared to be parroting a slogan used by IS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, who was killed in Syria last year.
A reporter saw several police snipers on the rooftops of buildings around the parliament.
Shops in the area were shuttered, and gunfire could be heard, they said.
Witnesses said the attackers were shooting from the fourth floor of the parliament building down at people in the streets below.
Police helicopters circled over the parliament building and all mobile phone links from inside were disconnected.
All entrance and exit gates at parliament were closed and lawmakers and reporters were ordered to remain in place inside the chamber during the siege, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency said.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the attack a cowardly act.
“Iran is an active and effective pillar in the fight against terrorists and they want to damage it,” he said.
Soon after the parliament attack, a suicide bomber and other assailants targeted the shrine of founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran, according to Iran’s official state broadcaster.
A security guard was killed and one of the attackers was killed by security guards, it said, adding that a woman was arrested.
A reporter saw security forces, some uniformed and others in plainclothes, around the large and ornate shrine.
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