Iranian authorities stated a terror attack on a shrine in the city of Shiraz killed at least 15 people, including several women and children, and wounded 27 more.
The so-called “Islamic State” (IS) has allegedly claimed responsibility for the strike while Tehran stated two men had been apprehended and one more was on the run.
The strike on the Shah Cheragh Mosque– among the holiest sites in Iran– occurred on the same day Iranian security forces fired on militants that had collected at the grave of Jina Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died 40 days ago while in police custody.
IS claimed the attack on its Amaq news agency, claiming that an armed militant had actually opened fire at the temple, claiming to have actually killed 20 individuals.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the opponent first shot dead an employee of the shrine before being chased after by observers. His gun ended up being jammed, however, he had the ability to clear it before firing on his pursuers, the agency reported.
“This crime will definitely not go unanswered, and the security and law enforcement forces will teach a lesson to those who designed and carried out the attack,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in response to the violence.
Raisi added that “the country’s security and law enforcement agencies will give a response to the perpetrators that will make them regret their evil act,” according to Iranian state media IRNA in a later report.
Footage of the moment when the terrorist entered a shrine in #Shiraz, killing 15 people including a woman and two children. https://t.co/nl7bcGuEa5 pic.twitter.com/leTmcqZKVS
— Iran Daily (@IranDailyWeb) October 26, 2022
Iranian state television condemned the attack on “takfiris”– the name offered to ultraconservative Sunni Muslim extremists such as those coming from IS. Iran is a Shiite majority nation but has been spared much of the ethnic bloodshed seen in Iraq as well as Afghanistan where Shiites have usually been targeted.
“A Muslim or a Muslim group is Takfiri if it declares another Muslim or a Muslim sect as apostate.” Pakistani religious scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi told VOA News in 2016.
A similar assault last April, however, saw a man stab 2 clerics at the Imam Reza temple in the city of Mashhad, both clerics died as a result of the attack.
