MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ARMED RESISTANCE CONTRA TEHRAN MULLAHS

IRGC Members Among Dozens of Casualties in Iran Military Parade Attack Saturday, 22 September, 2018 –

Asharq Al-Awsat  – Gunmen attacked a military parade in the southwest Iranian city of Ahvaz on Saturday, killing 24 people and wounding 53 others, the official IRNA news agency reported. Among the dead are women and children, and members of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), IRNA said, adding that the death toll could rise further as many of the wounded were in critical condition.

It said gunmen were dressed in Guard uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting.

State television showed images of the immediate aftermath. In it, paramedics could be seen helping someone in military fatigues laying on the ground. Other armed security personnel shouted at each other in front of what appeared to be a viewing stand for the parade.

Local news agencies published photographs of the attack’s aftermath, with bloodied troops in dress uniforms helping each other walk away.

Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards official, vowed retaliation.

“Enemies should not imagine that they can gain dignity with this sinister move. The Iranian people and the armed forces will respond to this,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying.

The attack struck on Ahvaz’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Boulevard.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group’s Amaq news agency. The group provided no evidence for the claim.

Three of the attackers died at the scene while a fourth was arrested and later succumbed to his wounds, armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said.

Saturday’s rally was one of many in cities across Iran held to mark the anniversary of the launch of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88).

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani vowed earlier Saturday to boost his country’s ballistic missile capabilities despite Western concerns that were cited by his US counterpart Donald Trump in May when he abandoned the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

“We will never decrease our defensive capabilities… we will increase them day by day,” Rouhani said at a separate military parade in the capital Tehran.

“The fact that the missiles anger you shows they are our most effective weapons,” he said, referring to the West.

Reports said that Rouhani left the parade after news of the Ahvaz attack broke out.

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