Accessibility links

Breaking News

Tehran Attacks: Regional Game Changed, Analysts Say


Iranian security and rescue officials outside parliament's administrative building, during the siege.
Iranian security and rescue officials outside parliament's administrative building, during the siege.

The five-hour siege of the Iranian Parliament has been declared over by the country's Interior Ministry's official statement. According to the statement, 12 citizens and six attackers have been confirmed dead in simultaneous attacks on Ayatollah Khomeini's Mausoleum and the Parliament.

The statement is expected to end a few hours of confusion over details of what has been dubbed as an unprecedented event during recent years in Iran.

"These obviously-coordinated-attacks raise questions about security apparatuses within the Islamic Republic", Hossein Aryan, military analyst told Radio Farda.

"These attacks will have major psychological repercussions both inside and outside Iran in light of the 30 km red line previously set by Iranian military commanders ." Aryan added.

He was referring to statements by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who had declared a 30 kilometer red line outside Iran's borders for "Takfiri" militants.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for these attacks, while gunmen were still inside the parliament. The group also posted a 24-second video purportedly showing a body of a victim.

The alleged attackers were heard speaking with one another in Arabic.

Recently the IS released a video in Persian threatening the Islamic Republic for what they claimed to be discrimination against the country's Sunni minority.

Iranian analysts speaking to Radio Farda said that June 7 2017 would probably go down in Iran's contemporary history as a date when the Islamic Republic's claim to enjoying security in a volatile region was shattered following deadly attacks on two key locations in the capital.

According to security officials, the gunmen disguised as women, entered an administrative building of the parliament where parliament members receive their constituents.

Ehsan Mehrabi, former Parliamentary reporter, told Radio Farda that the absence of sufficient security measures at the attackers' point of entrance might be due to the large number of constituents visiting the building on a daily basis.

Preliminary reports say that two of those killed were staff members of parliament deputies.

Jamaran website, run by Ayatollah Khomeini state-funded foundation confirmed "one martyr and four injuries" as a result of a suicide bomber detonating explosives.

Hassan Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, visits his grandfather's mausoleum after the attacks
Hassan Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, visits his grandfather's mausoleum after the attacks

While Iran Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani dismissed the attacks as "minor incidents", an eyewitness in Tehran told Farda that the atmosphere in the capital is still tense and commuters follow events with grave concern.

XS
SM
MD
LG