Tragedy! 12 killed, 39 wounded in Tehran attacks

Twelve people were killed in twin attacks on Iran’s parliament complex and the shrine of its revolutionary leader claimed by the Islamic State group on Wednesday, its emergency services chief said.

A total of 39 people were wounded in the two attacks, and rescue operations are continuing, Pir Hossein Kolivand said.

Police said all the attackers had been killed by around 3 pm (1030 GMT), some five hours after it started.

The Sunni jihadists of IS consider Shiite Iran to be apostates, and Tehran is deeply involved in fighting the group in both Syria and Iraq.

The assaults began mid-morning when four gunmen burst into the parliament complex in the centre of Tehran, killing a security guard and one other person, according to the ISNA news agency.

An interior ministry official said they were dressed as women and entered through the visitors’ entrance.

At roughly the same time, a team of three or four assailants entered the grounds of the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution, killing a gardener and wounding several other people.

Two of the attackers at the shrine, one of them a woman, blew themselves up, while another detonated a suicide vest on the fourth floor of the parliamentary office building. Punch