Terror Attacks Inside Iran – ISIS Claims Responsibility

The Iranian people suffer a variety of indignities under the heavy hand of repression from the mullahs’ regime, but today, they were dealt a further blow in two separate attacks from ISIS. According to a statement from Iran’s Interior Ministry, two terrorist teams simultaneously tried to conduct blind terrorist acts in the vicinity of the Mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Khomeini, and also at the Parliament.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility and released a video purporting to show gunmen inside the parliament building and one body, apparently dead, on the floor, according to Reuters in a report from inside Iran.

The first terrorist team consisted of two people who entered the mausoleum at around 10:30 am. One of them blew up her vest and the second was killed in a fire exchange with security forces. The second team, which attacked the Parliament, was composed of four people. Facing a reaction from security forces, one of them detonated his vest and the three others were killed in a shoot-out with police while attempting to reach the upper floors of the administrative building. This is the first attack from ISIS inside Iran.

Reports have indicated that 12 people were killed in these attacks and 42 others were injured. The Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Nejat, claimed that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. were behind the attacks, although he offered no details or evidence of these claims.

U.S. President Trump, in a statement attributed to him regarding the attacks, said, “We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times. We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect Maryam Rajavi, condemned the attacks, saying, “ISIS’s conduct clearly benefits the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, who wholeheartedly welcomes it as an opportunity to overcome his regime’s regional and international impasse and isolation. The founder and the number one state sponsor of terror is thus trying to switch the place of murderer and the victim and portray the central banker of terrorism as a victim.”

“The terrorist rivalry between the claimants of a Sunni Caliphate and the so-called Shi’ite Caliphate dubbed the velayat-e faqih in Iran, even if not the tailor-made or staged, is the source of jubilation and elation for mullahs’ Caliph Khamenei”, Mrs. Rajavi added.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani claimed that “the incident was not unexpected” and Khamenei downplayed “these firework displays” as insignificant and ineffective.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), an Iranian resistance group, denies reports claiming that they were involved in this incident. In their statement, they noted that Iranian officials are claiming the release of the tape by Mr. Hossein Ali Montazeri, which exposed the 1988 massacre, led to increasing social outrage and international condemnation that contributed to the attacks.