Iran summons Western diplomats following parade attack killing 25

Tehran, Iran – Militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in the oil-rich southwest of the country, leaving at least 25 dead and more than 60 injured in the deadliest terrorist attack in nearly a decade. years.

Women and children scattered with Revolutionary Guard soldiers on the move as gunshots resounded Saturday at the Ahvaz parade, the chaos captured live on state television.

Arab separatists in the region, once known only for their nocturnal attacks on unprotected oil pipelines, claimed the brazen assault and Iranian officials seemed to believe this claim. Iran on Sunday summoned British, Danish and Dutch diplomats for hosting "members of the terrorist group" who launched the attack.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused the countries of the region and their "American masters" of financing and arming the separatists, issuing a brutal warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the retreat. American of the Iranian nuclear agreement.

"Iran will respond quickly and decisively to the defense of Iranian lives," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The attack came as rows of revolutionary guards descended the Quds of Ahvaz or the Boulevard of Jerusalem. It was one of many demonstrations across the country marking the beginning of the long war between Iran and Iraq, the commemorations known as "Week of Sacred Defense".

Journalists and spectators turned to the first shots, then the ranks of the protesters broke as soldiers and civilians sought protection from gunfire. Iranian soldiers used their bodies in time to protect civilians in the fray, with a uniformed guard and a scarf carrying a bloody boy.

"Oh my God, go ahead, go ahead, lie down, lie down!" a man shouted as a woman fled with her baby.

Subsequently, the paramedics treated the wounded while soldiers, some bloodied, helped their comrades to go to the ambulances. The video obtained by the Associated Press in the afternoon shows bodies of soldiers, some seeming lifeless, lying on the ground in puddles of blood. One of them had a blanket covering him. A man screamed in pain.

According to the official IRNA news agency, the attack left at least 25 dead and more than 60 wounded. He stated that armed men wore military uniforms and aimed at a riser with military commanders and police. According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, at least eight of the dead have served in the Revolutionary Guards, an elite paramilitary unit that only responds to Iran's supreme leader.

"We suddenly realized that armed people carrying fake military equipment started attacking comrades from behind (the scene) and then opened fire on women and children," said one wounded soldier. "They were just aimlessly spinning and had no specific target."

A few hours later, State TV reported that the four gunmen had been killed, three of them dying during the attack and another succumbing to his wounds in a hospital.

President Hassan Rouhani ordered the Iranian Intelligence Ministry to investigate the attack immediately.

"The president stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran's response to the slightest threat would be severe, but that those who support the terrorists should be responsible," IRNA reported.

In addition, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the attack as "denounced and wicked by the enemies of the Iranian nation".

"Their crime is a continuation of the plots of US regimes in the region, which aim to create insecurity in our beloved country," Khamenei said in a statement. "However, to their dismay, the Iranian nation will persist in the noble and proud path it has taken and – as before – will overcome all the animosities".

Tensions have increased between Iran and the United States. The Trump administration in May withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and has since reinstated the sanctions that had been relaxed under the agreement. He has also stepped up pressure on Iran to try to stop it from stopping what Washington calls "malicious activity" in the region.

Despite this, the US government strongly condemned the attack and expressed sympathy, saying "the United States condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of innocent lives".

At first, the authorities described the attackers as "takfiri gunmen", a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and has helped Syrian President Bashar Assad in the war of his country.

But later, the state media and government officials seemed to have reached the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. Separatists accuse the Persian-dominated Iranian government of discriminating against its Arab ethnic minority, even though Ahvazi Arab, General Ali Shamkhani, is secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Khuzestan province has also witnessed recent protests against drought at the national level and economic events in Iran.

Iran has accused its rival in the Middle East, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding the activities of Arab separatists. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately recognize the attack, although a UK-based, UK-based Farsi-language satellite channel immediately interviewed a Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday's attack.

Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian ambassador to the United Kingdom, described the decision of the chain of "heinous" acts in a message posted on Twitter and said that his country would file a complaint with the British authorities. On Sunday morning, a Foreign Ministry statement quoting spokesman Bahram Qasemi criticized Britain and said that Danish and Dutch diplomats had been informed that Iran had "already warned" their governments to have sheltered Arab separatists.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab struggle movement for the release of Ahvaz, told the AP that members of a group of Ahvazi activists led by his organization led the attack.

The attack has undermined the Iranian government "the day it wants to let the world know that it is powerful and in control," said al-Tostari. To reinforce his claim, he gave details of one of the attackers that the AP could not verify immediately.

The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack in a message broadcast on its news agency Amaaq, but provided no evidence of its aggression. They also incorrectly asserted that the Ahvaz attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran. Activists made a series of false statements following major defeats in Iraq and Syria.

In Tehran, Rouhani attended a military parade including ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel and US military bases in the Middle East. Rouhani said the US was pulling out of the nuclear deal was an attempt to get Iran to abandon its military arsenal. United Nations inspectors say Iran continues to respect the deal, which has limited its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

"Iran did not put its defensive weapons aside or reduce its defensive capabilities," Rouhani said. "Iran will add to its defensive power day after day".

Meanwhile, the Iranian General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman of the armed forces, said without proof that the four militants involved in the attack on Saturday "were dependent on US intelligence services and the Mossad" of Israel .

"They were trained and organized in two countries in the Persian Gulf," he said without giving further details.

Saturday's attack comes after a coordinated aggression on June 7, 2017 against the parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 others injured.

The attack shocked Tehran, which largely avoided militant attacks in the decades following the tumult of the revolution.

In the last decade, attacks by mass activists have been incredibly rare. In 2009, more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide bombing by Sunni extremists in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

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Gambrell reported in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press writer in Beirut, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, and television producer Mohammad Nasiri in Tehran contributed to this article.