At least 15 people were killed in an attack on a key Shiite Muslim shrine in Iran’s southern Fars Province on Wednesday, state media said, with the Islamic State group claiming the assault.
The attack carried out by an armed “terrorist” during evening prayers at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz also injured at least 19 people, state television said.
Earlier reports said 13 people were killed and 40 injured, and that three assailants were involved.
Photo: Reuters
However, local judicial official Kazem Mousavi told state television that “only one terrorist was involved in this attack.”
The assailant “fired indiscriminately on worshipers” gathered at the shrine, Fars Governor Mohammad-Hadi Imanieh told the broadcaster.
A witness told state news agency IRNA that he “heard the cries of women” as evening prayers started, and that the “assailant entered the shrine and opened fire.”
Photo: AFP
Iranian media published images and video footage showing bloodied bodies covered in cloth lying inside the shrine.
IRNA carried a picture of a boy on a stretcher and another of a woman holding a child, with traces of blood on the ground.
Fars news agency said a woman and two children were among those killed.
The Islamic State group on social media claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Shah Cheragh mausoleum is home to the tomb of Ahmad, brother of Imam Reza — the eighth Shiite imam — and is considered the holiest site in southern Iran.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed “a severe response.”
A statement released by his office said Raisi condemned “the enemies of Iran” who attempt to “divide the united ranks of the nation ... through violence and terror.”
The attack came as Iran has been rocked by street protests since the death of Mahsa Amini last month after she was arrested by morality police for allegedly contravening the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
Dozens of people — mainly protesters, but also members of the security forces — have been killed during the unrest. Hundreds more, including women, have been arrested.
State television reported one arrest over the shrine attack and said that the assailant was “a terrorist affiliated with takfiri groups,” referring to Sunni Islamist militant groups.
The attack was the second deadliest this year against a Shiite shrine in Iran. It came days after two Sunni clerics were shot dead outside a seminary in the northern Iranian town of Gonbad-e Kavus.
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