According to state media, at least 15 people, including women and children, were killed in an attack in the Iranian city of Shiraz. Dozens of other people are said to have been injured.
The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack on a Shiite shrine in the Iranian city of Shiraz late Wednesday evening (local time). According to the media, at least 15 people died in the attack, including women and children.
According to reports, the victims were pilgrims and workers at the Shah Cheragh shrine. “A terrorist” attacked the place, said the head of the local judicial authorities, Kasem Mousavi, on Iranian state television. A man with “connections to ‘Takfiri’ groups” was arrested, it said. The term “Takfiri” is used by the Iranian authorities to refer to Sunni jihadists.
Like the semi-state news agency Tasnim reported, the perpetrator first shot an employee at the entrance to the shrine of Shah Cheragh, a brother of the eighth Imam Reza, and then his gun jammed. He managed to fix the gun and opened fire on the believers.
According to state media reports, President Ebrahim Raisi stated that Iran would respond to this act: “This crime will definitely not go unpunished and the security and law enforcement forces will teach those who planned and carried out the attack a lesson.”
The attack in Shiras came on the same day that clashes broke out across the country between security forces and protesters commemorating 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 40 days after her death. According to an eyewitness, security forces in Amini’s hometown of Sakes had even shot at mourners who had gathered at the cemetery for a memorial service. The semi-state news agency Insa reported that around 10,000 people took part on the last day of the mourning period. In Iran, a family member is traditionally mourned for 40 days.