Gunmen attacked a main Shiite holy site in Iran on Wednesday, killing at least 15 others and wounding dozens. The attack came as protesters across the country marked a symbolic 40 days since the death of a woman in custody sparked the largest anti-government action. in more than a decade.
State television blamed the attack on the “takfiris,” a term referring to Sunni Muslim extremists who have targeted the country’s Shiite majority in the past. The attack gave the impression of being unrelated to the protests.
The judiciary’s official online website said two gunmen were arrested and a third fled after the attack on the Shah Cheragh mosque, Iran’s holiest site. wounded.
An Iranian news site close to the Supreme National Security Council reported that the attackers were foreign nationals, without elaborating.
The Islamic State organization claimed responsibility for the attack on its Amaq news agency late Wednesday. He said an armed Islamic State militant stormed the shrine and opened fire on visitors. He said about two dozen people were killed and dozens injured.
Such attacks are rare in Iran, yet last April, an assailant stabbed to death two clerics at the shrine of Imam Reza, the country’s most respected Shiite site, in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
President Ebrahim Raisi said whoever directed and planned the attack “will get a regrettable and decisive response,” he said.
IRNA quoted Raisi as saying: “This evil will not pass without an answer. “
Earlier on Wednesday, thousands of protesters took to the streets northwest of the city to mark the turning point 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose tragedy sparked the protests.
The deaths are commemorated in Shia Islam, as in many other traditions, 40 days later, with an outpouring of grief. In Amini’s Kurdish hometown of Saqez, the cradle of Iran’s ongoing national unrest, crowds flooded the local cemetery and invaded his grave. .
“Death to the dictator!” protesters shouted, according to video footage that matches the known features of the city and the Aichi cemetery. The women tore off their scarves or hijabs and waved them over their heads. tomb. Road closures have been reported in the area.
State-linked media reported 10,000 protesters in the procession to his grave.
Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group, said security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters. The semi-official ISNA news firm said security forces fired pellets into a crowd of protesters on the outskirts of Saqez and repelled protesters who tried to attack the governor’s office. He said the local website had been shut down for “security considerations. “
Earlier in the day, Kurdistan Governor Esmail Zarei Koosha insisted traffic is proceeding normally and described the scenario as “completely stable. “
State media reported that schools and universities in Iran’s northwestern region would close, supposedly to curb “the flu. “
In central Tehran, the capital, sections of the classic grand bazaar closed in solidarity with the protests. The crowds cheered and shouted “Freedom!Freedom!Freedom!”through the labyrinthine market.
“This year is a year of blood!” They chanted: “[Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] will be overthrown!”
Riot police on motorcycles were in place. A gigantic organization of men and women marched through the streets, burning trash cans and shouting Death to the dictator!as cars honked their horns in support. Police fired bullets at protesters in the streets and sprayed pellets at journalists filming from windows and rooftops. Anti-government chants were also heard on the campus of Tehran University.
Amini, detained for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code, remains the harsh symbol of protests that have posed one of the Islamic Republic’s most serious challenges.
With the slogan #WomanLifeFreedom, the protests focused first and foremost on women’s rights and the state-imposed hijab for women. But they temporarily became calls to oust Shiite clerics who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The protests have also galvanized university students, industrial unions, prisoners and ethnic minorities such as Kurds along the Iran-Iraq border.
Since the protests began, security forces have fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse them, killing more than two hundred people, according to human rights groups.
Countless other people have been arrested, with estimates in the thousands. Iran’s judicial government announced this week that it would prosecute more than 600 people for their role in the protests, adding 315 in Tehran, 201 in neighboring Alborz province and 105 in the southwest. Khuzestan Province.
Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi told the official IRNA news firm that four protesters were charged with “war against God,” which carries the death penalty in Iran.
Iranian officials blamed the protests on foreign interference and offered evidence.
Last week, Iran imposed sanctions on more than a dozen European officials, corporations and institutions, adding foreign Farsi-language channels that have widely covered the protests, accusing them of “supporting terrorism. “The sanctions involve a ban on access and visa for members in addition to confiscating their assets in Iran.
Deutsche Welle, the German public broadcaster whose Farsi team blacklisted, on Wednesday condemned the resolution as “unacceptable. “
“I hope politicians in Germany and Europe will increase the pressure on the regime,” said DW chief executive Peter Limburg.
In a separate event, the maximum of the remaining component of a 10-story tower that collapsed earlier this year in the southwestern city of Abadan, killing at least 41 people, fell on Wednesday, state media reported. News firm IRNA reported that a woman died in a car parked near the site. Other parts of the building had collapsed last month.
The fatal collapse of the Metropol structure on May 23 has a lightning rod for protests in Abadan, about 410 miles southwest of the capital, Tehran. The crisis highlighted the poor practices of Iran’s structure, government corruption and negligence.
Videos were released showing the remaining tower crashing into the street as huge clouds of dust rose into the sky.
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