Double attack in Tehran on June 7, 2017
In a double attack in the Iranian capital Tehran on June 7, 2017, parliamentarians in the country's parliament building and visitors to the Khomeini mausoleum were attacked with intent to kill. At least 18 people, including five of the attackers, were killed and over 40 others injured in the Islamist terrorist attack .
background
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has had the right to represent the Shia worldwide. A part of the Sunnis, on the other hand, does not recognize the division among Muslims and thus the Shiites. Iran supports the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war and is rather hostile to the Sunni-influenced Saudi states. The terrorist organization " Islamic State " (IS), which invokes Sharia and Wahhabism , is also being fought in Syria by al-Quds units . In Iraq, at the time of the attack, Iranian paramilitaries were involved in the recapture of the IS metropolis of Mosul .
With the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic and the parliament, the terrorists attacked places with high symbolic value. In March of the same year ISIS released a video in Persian threatening Iran to conquer the country and "return it to the Sunni Muslim nation". In the months leading up to the attack, according to the BBC, IS increased its propaganda efforts in Persian to address the Sunni minority in Iran. Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alawi admitted in 2017 that the Iranian authorities had so far prevented 1,500 young men from leaving the area controlled by IS.
In Iran itself there are tensions in the border provinces of the large country, terrorist networks, etc. a. the Jundollah , use it. In May 2017, after a long period of calm in western Iran, fighting between Iranian troops and Kurdish separatists flared up again. Two soldiers died and three were seriously injured. On the border with Pakistan , especially in the provinces of Sistan and Balochistan , the majority Sunni population feels discriminated against and neglected by the government in Tehran.
Like other Sunni extremists, ISIS regards Shiites as " infidels " and regularly carries out attacks against them - but never before in Iran. Most Iranians feel safe in their country , according to Spiegel Online , because the Middle East conflicts took place in the Arab world. In the years up to 2017 there were some terrorist acts by Sunni terrorists in Iran, many of whom sympathize with the “Islamic State”. The ARD correspondent Michael Schramm attributed the fact that there had been no major attacks in Iran up to this point in time due to the strong surveillance of Iranian society by the country's secret services .
The double attack came during a period of high tension between rivals in the Iran and Saudi Arabia region . According to Martin Gehlen, Iran sees itself as a “global protective power of the Shiites”, while Saudi Arabia sees itself as “Sunni supremacy” with “ Mecca and Medina ”. The Saudi government accuses Iran of supporting terrorism in the region. US President Trump supported this allegation during his visit to Saudi Arabia at the end of May 2017. Conversely, Iran has accused the Saudi monarchs of inciting and funding the members of the Sunni minorities in Iran.
BBC analysts see the implementation of a successful attack in Iran as an extension of the IS’s claim to leadership among the jihadist groups, especially vis-à-vis rival al-Qaeda .
procedure
On the morning of June 7th, people disguised as women and armed with a pistol and automatic weapons entered the parliament building through the visitors' entrance while a meeting was taking place there. Numerous members of parliament and parliamentary staff were in the building. The attackers killed a security guard and several other people. There was also a hostage situation on the upper floor of the building . Many people fled the large building complex. The fire brigade set up ladders so people could leave the building. A deployed unit of the Revolutionary Guard shot three attackers. According to unconfirmed reports, another assassin blew himself up on the fourth floor of the parliament building after being caught by security forces.
At the same time, other people attacked believers praying in front of the mausoleum. One of the assassins blew himself up, and a gardener was killed. One of the attackers was shot and another could be arrested.
Overall, the Iranian government spoke of a total of five attackers, four men and one woman.
Perpetrator
The terrorist organization Islamic State declared itself responsible for the crimes in its propaganda mouthpiece Amaq . The Iranian Revolutionary Guards, however, blamed Saudi Arabia and the United States as the originators of the attacks.
The fact that Donald Trump visited "one of the most reactionary governments in the region" is "very significant" and "shows that they are involved in this cruel act," said a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, referring to Trump's visit to Riyadh a few days earlier . The Revolutionary Guards announced retaliation.
The day after the attack, the government announced that all of the attackers were Iranian members of ISIS.
Reactions
US President Donald Trump expressed his condolences and linked them with criticism of Iran: "States that promote terrorism risk becoming victims of the evil they support". Foreign Minister Mohammed Jawad Zarif called Trump's declaration on the double attack and the imposition of new US sanctions on Thursday "disgusting".
On June 18, 2017, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards fired surface -to-surface missiles from the provinces of Kermanshah and Kordestan against bases of the Islamic State (IS) near Deir ez-Zor in Syria in retaliation for the double attack, killing several terrorists according to their own statements.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Martin Gehlen: Attacks in Tehran: Iran makes USA and Saudi Arabia jointly responsible. In: zeit.de . June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Double attack in Tehran: attack on parliament ends after hours of shooting. In: faz.net . June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Iran attacks leave 12 dead at parliament and Khomeini mausoleum. In: BBC News online. June 7, 2017, accessed June 7, 2017 .
- ^ A b c Martin Gehlen: Tehran: Revolutionary Guards blame the Saudis. In: Frankfurter Rundschau online. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
- ^ A b Hasnain Kazim, Susanne Koelbl, Dominik Peters: Attacks in Iran: Revolutionary Guards blame Saudi Arabia. In: Spiegel Online . June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
- ^ Video - Terror in Tehran: M. Schramm, ARD-Istanbul, on the background of the attacks. In: tagesschau.de . June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Vanna Vannuccini: Tehran sotto attacco, kamikaze nel parliamento e al mausoleo di Khomeini: almeno 12 morti. In: Repubblica.it. June 7, 2017, Retrieved June 7, 2017 (Italian).
- ↑ Video - Attacks on the mausoleum and parliament in Tehran. (No longer available online.) In: tagesschau.de. June 7, 2017, archived from the original on June 11, 2017 ; accessed on June 7, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gunmen attack Iran's parliament, Khomeini shrine. In: Al Jazeera online. June 7, 2017, accessed June 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Iran: Tehran assassins were Iranians. In: zeit.de. June 8, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Terror in Tehran: Who are the perpetrators? In: dw.com . June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Iran goes on the barricades because of Trump's comment on the Tehran attack. In: Focus Online . June 8, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
- ↑ Middle East Iran's Revolutionary Guard strikes Syria for Tehran attacks. (No longer available online.) In: The Washington Post online. June 18, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 18, 2017 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
