DUBAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Iran’s supreme leader vowed on Thursday to retaliate against those who threaten the country’s security after the massacre of Shiite pilgrims, an assault claimed by Islamic State that threatens to inflame tensions between of the widespread anti-government protests.
In a statement read on state television, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attackers “will surely be punished” and called on Iranians to unite.
“We all have a duty to deal with the enemy and his traitorous or ignorant agents,” Khamenei said a day after the attack killed 15 people.
Khamenei’s call for unity appeared to be aimed mostly at government loyalists rather than the protesters, whose movement nearly six weeks ago is seen by authorities as a threat to national security.
Iran’s clerical rulers have faced protests across the country since the September 16 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman.
Iranians have called for Khamenei’s death and the end of the Islamic Republic during the protests, which have become one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution and have brought many Iranians to the streets .
Iranian officials said they had arrested a gunman who carried out the attack at the Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz. State media blamed “takfiri terrorists,” a label Tehran uses for hardline Sunni Muslim militants such as the Islamic State.
A senior official said the alleged attacker was in critical condition after being shot by police.
“We haven’t been able to question him yet,” provincial deputy governor Easmail Mohebipour was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
CCTV footage broadcast on state television on Thursday showed the attacker entering the shrine after hiding an assault rifle in a bag and firing as worshipers tried to flee and hide in the corridors.
Islamic State, which once posed a security threat across the Middle East, has claimed previous violence in Iran, including deadly twin attacks in 2017 on parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
From the height of its power, when it ruled millions of people in the Middle East and struck fear around the world with deadly bombings and shootings, the Islamic State has slipped back into the shadows.
Iran often accuses the West and its regional rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia of fomenting attacks. Saudi Arabia denies this and Israel typically refuses to comment on its moves against the Islamic Republic.
The killing of Shia pilgrims on Wednesday came on the same day that Iranian security forces clashed with increasingly raucous protesters marking the 40th anniversary of Amini’s death.
Iranian leaders may have hoped the attack on the shrine would divert attention away from the unrest, but there is no sign that is happening.
The official IRNA news agency said protesters angry over the “suspicious” death of a protester smashed windows of banks, a tax office and other public buildings in the northwestern city of Mahabad.
Iranian human rights groups said there were unconfirmed reports that some members of Amini’s family are under house arrest. Reuters could not verify these reports. Reuters tried to contact Amini’s father and brother.
Authorities, who have accused the United States and other Western countries of fomenting what they call “riots,” have not yet released a death toll, but state media have said about 30 members of the security forces have died.
The activist news agency HRANA said in a publication that at least 252 protesters had died in the unrest, including 36 minors.
He said 30 members of the security forces had been killed and more than 13,800 people had been arrested as of Wednesday in protests in 122 cities and towns and some 109 universities.
Reporting from the Dubai newsroom; Written by Michael Georgy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie
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