At least 15 people were killed and another 40 were injured on Wednesday in a “terrorist attack” on the Shahcheragh Shrine in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, according to state media and Iranian officials. Two children were among the victims, according to state-run Press TV.
Iranian security forces have arrested two of the alleged attackers and a manhunt is underway to capture a third, state media reported.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, releasing a statement through its affiliated news agency Amaq, which said one of its members had targeted “groups of infidel Sunni rebels inside the shrine with his machine gun, causing the death of dozens of them.”
The Nour news agency, affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said the suspects were foreigners.
Wednesday night is one of the busiest times for the shrine, state-run IRNA reported, and eyewitnesses said an attacker was in a car before attacking worshipers at its entrance.
The governor of Fars province said that “the terrorist first attacked the servant and the shrine guard and intended to attack the congregation’s evening prayers, but one of the servants closed the door on him,” the state newspaper said citing the governor.
“Loud screams were heard in the female section of the shrine at the time of the adhan [o chamado para a oração] and suddenly a gunman was seen with a Kalashnikov shooting indiscriminately in the shrine complex,” an eyewitness told state media.
“After the initial burst of fire, the man approached the shrine and fired many shots at those present at the scene,” added the eyewitness.
The attack took place on the same day that the clashes broke out in across Iran as thousands of people flocked to Mahsa Amini’s burial site in Saqqez, a town in Kurdistan province, to mark 40 days since his death, the semi-official Iranian state news agency ISNA said. It is unclear whether the attack was related to the protests.
Protests have gripped the Islamic Republic after the death of the 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, who died on September 16 after being detained by the “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center”, allegedly for not complying with dress code. country conservative.
Source: CNN Brasil
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