Iran arrests 'accomplice' of IS-claimed shrine attack

Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Oct 31, 2022
Mourners take part in a funeral for victims of a mass shooting at a key shrine earlier in the week that killed more than a dozen worshippers, in Iran's southern city of Shiraz, on October 29, 2022
Mourners take part in a funeral for victims of a mass shooting that killed more than a dozen worshippersin Iran's southern city of Shiraz — MOHAMMADREZA DEHDARI

Iran announced Monday a suspected accomplice of the shooter who carried out a deadly attack on a Shiite Muslim shrine in Shiraz has been arrested, state news agency IRNA reported.

At least 13 people were killed last Wednesday in the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in the southern city, according to a revised official toll, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

State media had initially given a death toll of 15.

"The second person involved in the terrorist operation at the sacred sanctuary, who provided support, has been arrested," said local deputy governor Esmail Mohebipour, quoted by IRNA.

"The plans to carry out a terrorist act had been communicated to him," he added.

The suspect, arrested Sunday evening in Shiraz, had not entered the shrine, and his alleged role was not clear.

The intelligence ministry later announced the arrest of the "second operational element" and "six supporting elements of the terrorist criminal team", without further details.

The perpetrator of the attack in Shiraz, identified by local media as Hamed Badakhshan, died of wounds sustained while he was being arrested, a local official said Saturday.

The shooting at the shrine came on the same day that thousands of people across Iran paid tribute to Mahsa Amini, 40 days after her death in police custody.

Amini, 22, died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the country's Islamic dress code for women.

Remarks made Thursday by President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the Shiraz attack, one of the country's deadliest in years, with the protests and "riots" following Amini's death.

In funeral processions for victims in Shiraz on Saturday, crowds chanted slogans condemning the United States, Israel and Britain for allegedly being "behind the riots".

During the mourning ceremony, Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, urged the "limited number of youths deceived" by Iran's enemies to put an end to the unrest.