At least 12 killed in militant attack in Iran

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

Suicide bombers and gunmen have attacked the Iranian parliament and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran, killing at least 12 people.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed have blamed the twin assault on regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Islamic State claimed responsibility and released a video purporting to show gunmen inside the parliament building.

The attacks took place at a particularly charged time after Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.

They were the first claimed by the hardline Sunni Muslim militant group inside in the tightly controlled Shi'ite Muslim country.

Islamic State has regularly threatened Iran, one of the powers leading the fight against the militants’ forces in neighbouring Iraq as well as Syria.

The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the action, a rare such incident in Iran.

"This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the US president (Donald Trump) and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists,” a Guards statement said.

“The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack.”

Tensions

Saudi Foreign Minister del Al-Jubeir, speaking in Berlin, said he did not know was responsible and there was no evidence Saudi extremists were involved.

The attacks could also exacerbate tensions in Iran between newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist, and his rivals among hardline clerics and the Revolutionary Guards.

Attackers dressed as women burst through parliament's main entrance in central Tehran, deputy interior minister Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari said, according to the Tasnim news agency.

One of them detonated a suicide vest in the parliament, he said.

About five hours after the first reports, Iranian media said four people who had attacked parliament were dead and the incident was over.

At least 12 people were killed by the attackers, the head of Iran's emergency department, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, was quoted as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.

Some 43 people were wounded.

Soon after the assault on parliament, another bomber detonated a suicide vest near the shrine of the Islamic Republic's revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, a few kilometres south of the city, Zolfaghari said.

A second attacker was shot dead, he said.

The shrine is a main destination for tourists and religious pilgrims.

The Intelligence Ministry said security forces had arrested another "terrorist team" planning a third attack.