Iran: the Islamic State group claims a deadly attack in a Shiite shrine in Shiraz
A photo from inside the Shahcheragh shrine after the attack claimed by IS that killed at least 15 people on October 26, 2022. AP - Mohammadreza Dehdari
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At least 15 people were killed on Wednesday in the southern city of Shiraz in an attack in the main Shiite Muslim shrine in southern Iran and claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
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The attack, among the deadliest in recent years in Iran, was perpetrated "during evening prayers" in the Shahcheragh mausoleum, local governor Mohammad-Hadi Imanieh told state television.
According to him, the aggressor “
shot the faithful blindly
”, in the most important sanctuary in southern Iran, which houses the tomb of Ahmad, brother of one of the most venerated figures of Shiism, the Imam Reza died in 818.
“
Only one terrorist was involved in this attack
,” said the head of the local judicial authority, Kazem Moussavi, on television, which reported “
at least 15 dead and 19 injured
”.
The author, "
affiliated with takfiri groups, was arrested
", added the television in reference to jihadist or radical Sunni Islamist groups.
The television said that "
the security forces injured the assailant
" who "
is currently undergoing surgery in hospital
".
According to the IS propaganda outlet, a member of the Sunni jihadist group opened fire on worshipers at the Shahcheragh shrine, "
killing at least 20 Shiites and injuring dozens more
".
The second murderous attack perpetrated in 222
A witness told Iran's official Irna news agency that he "
heard cries of women at the time of the call to evening prayer
", adding that "
the attacker entered and shot at the shrine
".
Footage released by state media shows a bloodbath and several bodies covered in sheets.
The Irna agency broadcast images of a little boy on a stretcher in particular, but also the blurred photo of a woman lying on the ground holding a small child near a man leaning against a wall, with apparent blood marks .
The attack came as Iran has for nearly six weeks been hit by a wave of protests sparked by
the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini
, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran, a protest on a scale that the country had not seen for three years.
This is the second deadly attack perpetrated in 2022 against a Shiite place of worship in Iran, a country of some 83 million inhabitants, where Shiism has been the state religion since the 16th century.
At the beginning of April, a 21-year-old national of "Uzbek" origin stabbed two Shiite clerics to death and injured a third in the courtyard of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran's second city.
(
With
AFP)
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