29 killed, 60 injured in Iran military parade attack on Revolutionary Guards

At least 29 people, including 12 Iranian Revolutionary Guards, were killed and 60 others injured in a shooting claimed by ISIS during a military parade in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahwaz on Saturday, state television reported.

“Shooting began by several gunmen from behind the stand during the parade. There are several killed and injured,” a correspondent told state television, which later reported the precise death toll.

The report on Saturday described the assailants as “Takifiri gunmen,” a term previously used to describe ISIS.

The ISIS, through its propaganda agency Amaq, claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying that “fighters attacked a gathering of Iranian forces in the city of Ahwaz in southern Iran.”

But an Ahwazi political group's spokesman refuted the ISIS claim, saying only that national resistance groups carried out the operation. Full story

State television showed images of the immediate aftermath. In it, paramedics could be seen helping someone in military fatigues lying on the ground. Other armed security personnel shouted at each other in front of what appeared to be a viewing stand for the parade.

All four attackers were killed.

Women and children also died in the assault, state news IRNA agency reported.

Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, said the attackers had hidden weapons in an area near the parade route several days in advance.

“All four terrorists were quickly neutralized by security forces,” Shekarchi told state television.

The semi-official ISNA news agency published photographs of the attack's aftermath, with bloodied troops in dress uniforms helping each other walk away. The attack struck on Ahwaz's Quds, or Jerusalem, Boulevard.

Ahwaz is the capital of Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province. The province in the past has seen Arab separatists attack oil pipelines.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the country’s security forces to identify those responsible for the attack on the military parade, the semi-official ISNA news agency said.