Islamic State claims attack on Iranian parliament, ayatollah shrine

The Islamic State terror group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for coordinated terror attacks on the Iranian parliament and a shrine in Tehran that reportedly killed at least eight people while another four were taken hostage.

IS claimed the attacks in a report on its Amaq propaganda agency which said: “Fighters from the Islamic State attacked the Khomeini mausoleum and the parliament building in Tehran.”

The claim was circulated on social media accounts sympathetic to the jihadist group, which is currently under attack in its two major strongholds, Raqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

Shiite Iran has been singled out as a target by Sunni jihadists, including the Islamic State, but has largely escaped attacks within its urban centers.

Tehran, and its proxy the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group, has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad in his efforts to end a bloody insurgency that has dragged on for nearly six years. The Islamic State, a radical Sunni group, is one of many fighting groups vying for territory in Syria.

IS formed in the power void caused by the civil war in Syria and violence in Iraq, seizing territory from both those countries.

Two people were confirmed killed and several others were reported injured after armed men burst into Tehran’s parliament building and the mausoleum of revolutionary founder Ruhollah Khomeini, with state media reporting at least two suicide bombings.

Citing unconfirmed reports, the Mehr news agency said seven people were killed in parliament and four were being held hostage. One of the terrorists later blew himself up, the Iranian intelligence minister said.

One security guard was confirmed killed during an exchange of gunfire in a corridor of the parliament, and several people were injured.

Meanwhile, an apparently coordinated attack by four terrorists, one of them a suicide bomber, took place at the tomb of Khomeini in southern Tehran, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the parliament building.

An armed attacker entered at the western entrance of the mausoleum and opened fire before blowing herself up with a suicide vest, the site’s head of public relations Ali Khalili told the IRNA news agency. A gardener was reportedly killed.

A second attacker, also a woman, who was equipped with six grenades, was killed by security guards, while a third committed suicide by swallowing cyanide. The fourth attacker was reportedly arrested.

The ILNA news agency said five people were injured by gunfire there, while other reports put that figure as high as eight.

Agencies contributed to this report.