24 dead in an attack on the Iranian military parade


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The dead and wounded were soldiers and civilians, including a journalist watching the parade, said IRNA.

"The terrorists started shooting from far away in the park, against the armed forces and the civilians who attended the parade," a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, General Abolfazl Shekarch, told MEHR.

Three of the attackers were shot dead during clashes with security forces and another arrested, news organizations reported.

The group is supported by "foreign antagonists", including Saudi Arabia, said IRNA.

"Terrorists disguised as guards of the Islamic Revolution and basiji forces (volunteers) opened fire on the authority and the people behind the platform," said Khuzestan Governor Gholam-Reza Shariati.

IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif said the attackers were affiliated with a terrorist group backed by Saudi Arabia, said Press TV. "The people who fired on the population and the armed forces during the parade are connected to the al-Ahvaziya group, which is fed by Saudi Arabia," Sharif said. Saudi Arabia has yet to respond to the allegations.

The parade was part of the national celebrations in Iran marking the 30th anniversary of the end of the eight-year war against Iraq that began in September 1980 and ended in August 1988.

The attack took place in a border province of Iraq with a large ethnic Arab community, many of whom are Sunni. It was a major battlefield during the war that killed half a million soldiers.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also accused "a foreign regime" backed by the United States for Saturday's attack that killed at least eight people and several civilians.

"Terrorists recruited, trained, armed and paid by a foreign regime have attacked Ahvaz," Zarif said in a tweet, adding that "Iran has regional sponsors of terrorism and their American masters for such attacks. ".

Earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani seized the occasion of military parades to compare US President Donald Trump to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Press TV reported.

A wounded soldier in the attack is being treated at the scene in the city of Ahvaz, south of Iran.

Speaking at a military rally in Tehran, he said that Trump will fail in the "economic and psychological war" that he launched against Iran, just as Saddam Hussein failed in his eight-year war against the Islamic Republic.

"Iran will not abandon its defensive weapons and will not reduce its defense capabilities," Rouhani said.

"On the contrary, it will increase its day-to-day defense power.The fact that they are angry at our missiles shows that these are Iran's most influential weapons."

The Iraqi border crossing authority said on Saturday that the Iranian side was temporarily closing Al Sheeb and al Shalamcha crossing points between the two countries after the attack.

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