Attack on Military Parade by Saudi-Backed Terrorists in SW Iran

TEHRAN (IQNA) – At least 20 people, including a child and a woman, were injured in a terrorist attack on a military parade in Iran’s southern city of Ahvaz on Saturday.

Unknown gunmen opened fire on people from behind the stand during the parade held to mark the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran which led to an eight-year war in the 1980s.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) spokesman Ramezan Sharif said the attackers were affiliated to a terrorist group supported by Saudi Arabia.

“The individuals who fired at the people and the armed forces during the parade are connected to the al-Ahvaziya group which is fed by Saudi Arabia,” he said, according to Press TV.

Sharif said the shooting is not unprecedented and the group which is also supported by the UK has attacked convoys of those visiting the former frontlines of Saddam's war on Iran in recent years.

“It has been reported that four or five of the elements of the terrorist incident were killed by security and law enforcement forces,” IRNA said.

Citizens watching the parade first thought that the shooting was inadvertent and after several people were injured, they realized it is a terrorist attack.

Sharif said people had been invited to the ceremony and the terrorists targeted both the people and the armed forces in the attack. “The attack aimed to overshadow the magnificence of the parade by the armed forces,” he said.  

Similar parades are held in other cities across Iran, including Tehran where President Hassan Rouhani said the US administration will suffer the same fate as Saddam.

The attack comes after a US-backed campaign to stir up unrest in Iranian cities fell flat. The effort, known as the Hot Summer Project, sought to whip up public anger over water and electricity shortages in the face of a protracted drought.