Iran said on Thursday that gunmen and bombers who attacked Tehran were Iranian members of Islamic State who had fought in the militants' strongholds in Syria and Iraq – deepening the regional ramifications of the assaults
The parliament building in Tehran a day after the attack. Pic/AFP
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Iran said on Thursday that gunmen and bombers who attacked Tehran were Iranian members of Islamic State who had fought in the militants' strongholds in Syria and Iraq – deepening the regional ramifications of the assaults. The attackers raided Iran's parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum on Wednesday morning.
"They earlier left Iran and were involved in the crimes of the terrorist group in Raqqa and Mosul," the ministry said, referring to Islamic State's effective capital in Syria and a city it captured in Iraq. "Last year, they returned to Iran ... to carry out terrorist attacks in the holy cities of Iran," the ministry added in a statement.
The attacks were the first claimed by Islamic State inside tightly controlled Iran, one of the powers leading the fight against the militants in Iraq and Syria. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards have also said regional rival Saudi Arabia was involved. Saudi Arabia dismissed the accusation. Iran's intelligence ministry said earlier on Thursday it had arrested more suspects linked to the attacks, on top of six Iranians, detained on Wednesday.
17 Death toll of the Tehran attacks
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