08 June 2017•Update: 09 June 2017
TEHRAN
The perpetrators of Wednesday’s twin terrorist attacks in Tehran were members of Daesh who fought for the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said Thursday.
Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted a ministry statement that provided the identities of the attackers, who, the ministry said, had fought for Daesh in the Syrian city of Raqqah and the Iraqi city of Mosul.
The attackers had entered Iran at some point last year, the ministry said without providing precise dates.
On Wednesday, gunmen opened fire inside the Iranian parliament building in Tehran while a simultaneous attack took place near a shrine devoted to Ayatollah Khomeini south of the capital.
A total of 17 people were killed in the double attack, according to local officials, while all the assailants were reportedly killed by security forces.
In an earlier statement, a local security official had said that the perpetrators of both attacks were Iranian nationals.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, meanwhile, has accused Saudi Arabia and the U.S. of standing behind Wednesday's deadly attacks.
Reporting by Abdul-Jabbar Abu Ras; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat
