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Iran Calls Trump’s Response to Attacks ‘Repugnant’
Iran Says Tehran Assailants Were Recruited Inside the Country
(about 5 hours later)
Iran’s foreign minister denounced on Thursday the United States response to a pair of deadly assaults in Tehran as “repugnant,” as the death toll in the attacks rose to 17, with 52 others wounded.
At least five assailants in the deadly Tehran attacks were recruited by the Islamic State from inside Iran, the government said Thursday, a strong indication they were Iranian nationals.
Armed followers of the Islamic State carried out brazen attacks on two high-profile sites on Wednesday — the Parliament building, and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic — adding to tensions in the Middle East. It was the first time the militant group had carried out a significant operation in Iran.
The new detail about the assailants, killed during the Wednesday attacks, came as Iranian news media reported the civilian casualty toll had risen to 17 dead and 52 wounded, and the police presence in the Iranian capital increased noticeably.
President Trump issued a statement on Wednesday mourning the attacks, but added: “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”
The assault aftermath also was punctuated by new acrimony between Iranian leaders and the Trump administration, which expressed condolences on Wednesday coupled with an assertion that their country had fallen “victim to the evil they promote.” The assault also coincided with Senate action advancing new sanctions on Iran.
That elicited an angry response on Thursday from Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who helped negotiate a landmark nuclear deal that Iran, the United States and other countries reached in 2015. “Repugnant WH statement & Senate sanctions as Iranians counter terror backed by US clients,” Mr. Zarif wrote on Twitter. “Iranian people reject such US claims of friendship.”
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the American response in a Twitter message as “repugnant.”
Also on Thursday, the government released photographs of five men who were killed by security forces: four in the siege of Parliament, and one in an assault on the mausoleum. It disclosed only their first names, saying it did not want to release surnames because of security and privacy concerns for their families.
Five men and a woman armed with rifles and explosives carried out simultaneous assaults on Tehran’s Parliament building and the tomb of Iran’s revolutionary founder in broad daylight, surprising security forces and causing panic and mayhem that lasted for hours. The Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group, asserted responsibility.
Security camera footage from inside the Parliament building, which was released by state-run news outlets on Thursday, shows three of the attackers entering a public area and opening fire.
Official Iranian news accounts said the men were killed and the woman blew herself up.
The five men left Iran to fight for the terrorist group in Mosul, Iraq, and in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital, according to a government statement. They returned to Iran last July or August under the leadership of a commander with the nom de guerre Abu Aisha, and “intended to carry out terrorist operations in religious cities.”
It was Iran’s worst terrorist attack in years, exposing security lapses and undermining government assertions that the country is a beacon of calm in the volatile Middle East.
The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the five men. Reza Seifollahi, deputy chief of the Supreme National Security Council, told the independent newspaper Shargh that they were Iranian, but at least one state news agency reported that one of the attackers was not Iranian.
The attack also appeared to be the first time that Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim nation, had been successfully targeted by the Islamic State, which considers Shiites to be religious traitors.
If true, that would be an extraordinary departure — the Islamic State is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, Iran is the world’s largest Shiite Muslim nation, and the Islamic State has fought Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
A government statement issued Thursday about the attack said the male assailants had left Iran at an unspecified time to fight for the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital.
Several witnesses reported that the attackers spoke Arabic with an Iranian accent, suggesting that they were ethnic Arabs living in Iran.
They returned to Iran last July or August under the leadership of a commander with the nom de guerre Abu Aisha, the statement said, and had “intended to carry out terrorist operations in religious cities.”
The Islamic State has been stepping up Persian-language propaganda, part of an effort to woo the Sunni minority in Iran. In March, the Islamic State released a video featuring Iranian fighters, in which it called on Sunnis in the country to form cells and carry out attacks on Shiite forces, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzed the video.
The statement did not specify whether they were Iranian citizens or provide further information about the female assailant.
Moreover, the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, found that Al Qaeda and Iran had a relationship in the early 1990s that “demonstrated that Sunni-Shia divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations.”
But Reza Seifollahi, deputy chief of the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the independent newspaper Shargh as saying the five men were Iranian.
As recently as 2012, the Treasury Department in Washington chided Iranians for supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, a precursor of the Islamic State.
If true, that would be an unusual acknowledgment, given the antipathy between the Islamic State and Iran. Most of Iran’s 80 million people are Shiites, although sizable Sunni minorities inhabit some border regions and the Islamic State has sought to recruit from among them.
Iran is home to millions of Sunni Muslims, who live mostly in border areas, including in the Kurdish region. Kurds make up roughly 5 percent of the population of around 80 million. Unemployment and underinvestment have made Kurds cynical about the country’s Shiite leadership.
In March, the Islamic State released a video featuring Iranian fighters, in which it called on Sunnis in Iran to form cells and carry out attacks on Shiite forces, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzed the video.
President Hassan Rouhani, who was re-elected last month by a wide margin, had campaigned in favor of greater rights for minorities.
Several witnesses to the attacks reported that the assailants had spoken Arabic with an Iranian accent, suggesting that they were ethnic Arabs living in Iran.
In Khuzestan, an oil-rich province that borders Iraq and that is home to many Arabs, both Sunni and Shiite, a video emerged two weeks ago of men in black carrying weapons and shouting slogans on the streets of Ahvaz, the provincial capital. They were arrested the next day, the Intelligence Ministry said.
In Khuzestan, an oil-rich province that borders Iraq and that is home to many Arabs, both Sunni and Shiite, a video emerged two weeks ago of men in black carrying weapons and shouting slogans on the streets of Ahvaz, the provincial capital. They were arrested the next day, the Intelligence Ministry said.
A southeastern province, Sistan and Baluchistan, is home to several extremist Sunni groups that have committed bombings, assassinations and attacks on Iranian security forces and officials in recent times. Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, said on Thursday that Iran had broken up “a hundred terrorist plots” over the past two years, according to the news site Asr-e Iran. Inmates in Evin prison say they have seen dozens of Sunni extremists in the facility, often Kurds and Baluchis. Several of them have been hanged over the years.
A southeastern province, Sistan and Baluchistan, is home to several extremist Sunni groups that have committed bombings, assassinations and attacks on Iranian security forces and officials in recent times. Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, said on Thursday that Iran had broken up “a hundred terrorist plots” over the past two years, according to the news site Asr-e Iran. Former inmates of Tehran’s Evin Prison have said they saw dozens of incarcerated Sunni extremists, often Kurds and Baluchis. Several of them have been hanged.
On Thursday, the Iranian government said the five men who carried out the attacks in Tehran were “long affiliated with the Wahhabi,” the ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia — but it stopped short of directly blaming Saudi Arabia, its rival for supremacy in the region. Mr. Alavi told the Asr-e Iran website that it was too early to conclude that Saudi Arabia was involved in the attack.
Mr. Alavi suggested the assailants killed on Wednesday had affiliations with the ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival, but stopped short of directly blaming the Saudis.
“There is this belief in the world that Saudi Arabia is the ideological source of these terrorist movements, but it is too soon to say Saudi Arabia was behind the attack because we don’t want to make statements without evidence,” Mr. Alavi told the Iranian Students’ News Agency during a visit to victims at a hospital in Tehran.
“There is this belief in the world that Saudi Arabia is the ideological source of these terrorist movements, but it is too soon to say Saudi Arabia was behind the attack because we don’t want to make statements without evidence,” Mr. Alavi was quoted by the Iranian Students’ News Agency as saying during a visit to victims at a Tehran hospital.
In addition to the five men whose photographs were released, one female assailant at the mausoleum blew herself up, and another woman was captured and was being interrogated. A handful of other people have also been detained for questioning.
Saudi Arabia has denied any complicity in the attacks.
There was a heightened police presence in the streets of Tehran on Thursday, most significantly near the sites of the attacks and on the subways. A deputy interior minister, Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari, also said that “law enforcement activities may increase.”
The state-run news agency IRNA said that the death toll in the attacks had risen to 17, citing Dr. Ahmad Shojaei, who leads the country’s forensics center.
Earlier in the day, Pir-Hossein Koulivand, who leads Iran’s Medical Services Organization, said the number of wounded had risen to 52, and that 15 had been discharged from hospitals.
Statements of support from Iran’s allies continued to pour in on Thursday.
Statements of support from Iran’s allies continued to pour in on Thursday.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq expressed his condolences in a message to President Rouhani.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq expressed his condolences in a message to President Hassan Rouhani.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who has received crucial support from Iran during his country’s six-year civil war, spoke by telephone with Mr. Rouhani and affirmed his determination to fight “terrorists and their supporters,” according to a report from Syrian state media. Both Iran and Syria portray the war as a conflict against Western- and Gulf-sponsored terrorism.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who has received crucial support from Iran during his country’s six-year-old civil war, spoke by telephone with Mr. Rouhani and affirmed his determination to fight “terrorists and their supporters,” according to a report from Syrian state media. Both Iran and Syria portray the war as a conflict against Western- and Gulf-sponsored terrorism.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which serves as a proxy for Iran in Syria and Lebanon, also condemned the attacks, calling them part of an “international, destructive plan” backed by various governments in the region.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which serves as a proxy for Iran in Syria and Lebanon, also condemned the attacks, calling them part of an “international, destructive plan.”
