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(Pi Bureau)
Tehran : Twelve people were killed in twin attacks on Iran’s parliament premises and the tomb of its revolutionary leader Khomeini claimed by the ISIS today, its emergency services chief said. A total of 39 people were wounded in the two attacks and killing 12 persons, and rescue operations are continuing, Pir Hossein Kolivand said.
The Iranian intelligence ministry said security forces had arrested a “terrorist team” planning a third attack, without giving further details.
ISIS has claimed responsibility of the attack in the statement released .
One of the attackers blew himself up on the fourth floor of the parliament office building.
A gardener was reported dead and several more injured when armed assailants entered the grounds of Khomeini’s mausoleum.
It marks the first attack in Iran claimed by the ISIS, which is at war with Iranian-backed forces in Syria and Iraq. In a message posted through its Aamaq News Agency, the IS group claimed its fighters were behind the assaults.
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 Iran’s state TV.
The attacks, targeting parliament and the shrine of the Republic’s revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, took place less than a month after the re-election of President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate.
Three assailants, one with a pistol and two with AK-47 assault rifles, attacked the parliament building in central Tehran, lawmaker Elias Hazrati told state television.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported that one attacker detonated a suicide vest there, though some other news agencies said the explosion might have been caused by grenades thrown by the assailants.
Interior Minister Abdolrahman Fazli told ISNA he had convened a special meeting of the country’s security council following this terrorist attack .
Iran has been singled out as a target by jihadist groups, including ISIS, but has largely escaped attacks within its urban centres.
Iran, the predominant Shiite power, has been helping both Iraq and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria to battle the Sunni extremist group.
ISIS is under increasing pressure in both countries, having lost significant territory in the face of offensives now targeting its last two major urban bastions, Raqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
ISIS published a rare video in Persian in March, warning that it “will conquer Iran and restore it to the Sunni Muslim nation as it was before.”
