24 KILLED DURING PARADE OF IRAN

At least 24 people were killed and 53 others injured in an attack on a military parade in Iran's southwestern city of Ahvaz on Saturday, Iran's state news IRNA said.

The dead and wounded were both military personnel and civilians including a journalist who were watching the parade, IRNA added.

"Terrorists began shooting from a long distance while inside the park, at the armed forces as well as civilians watching the parade," Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarch, a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces told MEHR, another Iranian news agency.

Three of the attackers were gunned down during clashes with the security forces and one other arrested, news agencies reported.

 

 

 

Injured soldiers lie on the ground after the attack on the military parade.

The separatist group the patriotioc arab movementlaimed responsibility for this attack.

The group is supported by "foreign antagonists," including Saudi Arabia, IRNA said.

"The terrorists disguised as Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Basiji (volunteer) forces opened fire to the authority and people from behind the stand during the parade," Governor of Khuzestan Gholam-Reza Shariati said, according to IRNA.

IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif said the attackers were affiliated with a terrorist group supported by Saudi Arabia, Press TV said. "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," Sharif said. Saudi Arabia has yet to respond to the allegations.

The parade was part of nationwide celebrations in Iran to mark the 30th anniversary since the end of the eight-year war with Iraq that started in September 1980 and ended in August 1988.

The attack happened in a province bordering Iraq that has a large ethnic Arab community, many of them Sunni. It was a major battleground during the war that killed half a million soldiers.