Iran: Gunmen attack military parade, 8 Revolutionary Guard members killed
Gunmen attacked a military parade in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz today, killing at least eight members of the elite Revolutionary Guard and wounding 20 others, state media said. The state-run IRNA news agency reported that the wounded included a woman and a child. Earlier reports described the assailants as 'Takfiri', a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Here's more.
Aftermath images show paramedics helping military personnel
The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the elite Revolutionary Guard, said two gunmen on a motorcycle wearing khaki uniforms carried out the attack. State television showed images of the immediate aftermath. In it, paramedics could be seen helping someone in military fatigues lying on the ground. Other images showed bloodied troops in uniforms helping each other walk away.
In 2017, IS group attacked Parliament killing at least 18
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Today's attack, which struck on Ahvaz's Quds, or Jerusalem Boulevard, comes after a coordinated June 7, 2017, Islamic State group assault on Parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Tehran. At least 18 people were killed and over 50 wounded in the 2017 operation that saw gunmen carrying Kalashnikov rifles and explosives storm the Parliament complex.
Khomeini led 1979 Islamic Revolution, was Iran's first Supreme Leader
Khomeini, who became Iran's first Supreme Leader, led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed Shah to come to power. He ruled until his death in 1989. The assault shocked Tehran, which largely has avoided militant attacks in the decades after the tumult surrounding the Islamic Revolution. Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province, has seen Arab separatists attack oil pipelines.
2017 operation was Sunni extremists' only attack inside Shiite Iran
The 2017 operation marked the only attack by the Sunni extremists inside of Shiite Iran (where there is a majority of Shiite Muslims), which has been deeply involved in the wars in Iraq and Syria, where the militants once held vast territory.
