Financial Times - Isis claims responsibility for fatal attacks in Iran
the media pirateJune 7, 2017. Monavar Khalaj, Erika Solomon.
Twelve killed after assault on parliament and shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran.
At least 12 people were killed and more than 40 wounded when gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the Iranian parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, in Tehran.
Isis has claimed responsibility for the attacks, its first significant strike in the Islamic Republic, according to its Amaq news agency. “Fighters from Islamic state attacked Khomeini’s shrine and the Iranian parliament in Tehran,” Amaq reported.
The attack comes at an extremely sensitive moment in the Gulf, amid an escalating stand-off between Qatar, with whom Tehran has some ties, and its arch-rivals, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been emboldened by a recent visit by US president Donald Trump. In Riyadh, Mr Trump criticised Iran for allegedly backing terrorism and much of his administration is seen as hawkish against Iran. Tehran has long accused the Saudis of supporting Isis militants.
Hamid-Reza Taraghi, a senior politician close to hardliners in Tehran, has blamed a combination of Saudi Arabia, the US, Isis and exiled opposition group MEK for the attacks. “Saudi Arabia is definitely playing the leading role in these incidents, considering that its foreign ministry threatened Iran two to three days ago,” Mr Taraghi said, referring to calls by Riyadh for Iran to be punished for its support for terrorism. He provided no evidence to support his claims. “There is no room for fear and panic. Our (Revolutionary Guards) . . . will take revenge [ on Isis],” he added.
His view was echoed by others though they did not provide evidence either. “The fact that these two attacks took place . . . after that meeting [between the US and Riyadh] means that both the US and the Saudi regime have ordered their proxies to embark on that act,” Brigadier General Hossein Nejat of the Revolutionary Guards told a local news agency.
Mohsen Rezaei, a former top commander of the Revolutionary Guards, tweeted that terrorists should expect a “tough and unforgettable” response from Iran.
At least 12 people were killed by the attackers, the head of Iran’s emergency department, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. The assault began at 10.30am local time when the parliament was in session. Four gunmen in women’s clothing walked into the parliament buildings and began shooting at visitors. All the gunmen were killed, Iran’s interior ministry said in a statement, after a stand-off lasting several hours. One of the gunmen detonated an explosives vest.
Two gunmen opened fire at the Ayatollah Khomeini shrine in the Iranian capital. One of the attackers was reported to have killed himself by detonating an explosive vest. Another was shot dead. Earlier reports suggested that there were three gunmen at the shrine. Based on a video released by Isis, the attackers spoke Arabic. Mr Nejat said they were aged between 20 and 25 and that their nationality was not yet clear.
Such attacks are rare in Iran, which keeps a tight grip on domestic security. It has largely been spared from militant attacks, despite its heavy support of Shia militias in Syria and Iraq, which has increased sympathies among some of those countries’ Sunni populations for radical groups such as Isis.
Wages of conflict in Middle East
If Iran steps up its fight against Isis in the wake of Wednesday’s attack, the situation in the region could become even more volatile, analysts say. Charlie Winter, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, said the attack could boost Isis’s flagging morale and intensify pressure on Tehran to step up its involvement in Syria against the jihadis. “If this happens, a more intense ‘Sunni war against Shia Islam’ will pour petrol on Isis’s ideological fire,” he said.
Security analysts outside of Iran have long argued that it has not been attacked because it tolerated the presence of al-Qaeda members and the movement of communications and finances through the country. But for Isis, which is not reliant on foreign financing, Iran has long been eyed as a target.
While it is difficult to gauge the extent of an Isis presence in Iran, the group has long sought to attract people from Iran’s Sunni minority. In recent months, it stepped up its propaganda efforts targeting Iranian recruits. Last March, it released a 36-minute video in Persian, vowing to conquer Iran. In the video, militants used photographs of Iranian leaders for target practice, including Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ elite Quds force.
Iranians have been a long-overlooked part of Isis, and Mr Winter, in previous research, has noted that Iranians were a regular component of suicide attackers. Since 2015, he says, Isis had often translated documents or subtitled videos into Persian.
Officials and the intelligence ministry have tried to play down the attacks but Iranians voiced their fears on social media, warning each other to stay away from crowded areas and underground stations. “I have been in shock and glued to television since I heard the news,” says Hossein, a 45-year-old lawyer, who did not want to give his full name.
“I cancelled all my appointments in the afternoon and evening and called my staff not to come to office to spare them [taking] the underground trains to work.”
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