Over a Dozen Dead, Scores Injured After Armed Group Opens Fire Near Mausoleum in Iran

The Shah Cheragh funerary monument and mosque in Shiraz, southern Iran is one of the holiest sites in the Shia Islamic faith, becoming a major pilgrimage site in the 14th century.

A gunman or gunmen opened fire at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum and mosque complex in Shiraz on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, including at least one woman and two children, and injuring 45 others.

Local media have issued conflicting reports on the number of attackers involved, with the attack reportedly perpetrated by between one and three individuals. Two suspects are said to have been detained, with a third feared to have escaped.

Footage emerged on social media showing security cam footage of an attacker entering the mosque facility.

Senior Fars Province official Esmail Mohebi-Pour said terrorists opened fire on parishioners as they were gathered for evening prayers.

Sources told the Nour News Agency that the suspected terrorists are not Iranian nationals. Sputnik Persian reported that Daesh (ISIS)* has claimed responsibility for the carnage.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, an elite military formation responsible for Iranian military operations abroad, proved instrumental in pushing back Daesh's self-proclaimed 'caliphate' between 2014 and 2017, helping to organize Shia self-defense militias in Iraq, and to coordinate Syrian and Hezbollah forces during operations alongside Russia against the terrorists in the Arab Republic. The operations of the Quds Force and its allies helped save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Sunnis, Shia and Christians in Iraq and Syria.

President Ebrahim Raisi expressed his condolences to victims, their families, and all Iranians in the wake of Wednesday's attack, characterizing it as "another crime added to the list of atrocities committed by the enemies of the Islamic Revolution" and calling for national unity.

"Experience shows that Iran's enemies avenge their desperation, casting the stone of violence and terror to create a split in the close-knit ranks of the Iranian nation to stop the country's progress," Raisi said.

The president emphasized that Wednesday's "evil" act would not go unanswered, and that "the security and law enforcement agencies, having identified all aspects of this crime, will give a crushing and instructive response to the paymasters and commanders behind this terrorist attack."

Raisi later took to Telegram and continued to express sympathy for the victims and scorn for those responsible for the attack.

"I offer my condolences to the families of the victims and all the people of Iran amid the martyrdom of a group of pilgrims to the shrine, the Shah Cheragh mausoleum, in a terrorist attack... This evil will definitely not go unanswered... The security forces... will give a crushing and a cautionary response to the leaders of this attack," Raisi said on Telegram.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani tweeted Wednesday night that the holy site at Shah Cheragh had been "drowned in blood," and slammed the "false defenders of human rights" attempting to overthrow the government, suggesting that "behind their apparently humanitarian statements and false claims, they sought precisely these kinds of scenes of violence and bloodshed for the people of Iran. For them, the ends justify the means."

House Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the social forces which have caused unrest across much of Iran over the past month of "laying the groundwork for the enemy's plots," culminating in Wednesday's terror attack. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi similarly criticized protesters, saying that terrorists took advantage of the atmosphere of social unrest in the country to act.

Iranian security forces have been stretched thin by over a month of protests following the September 15 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who fell into a coma and died in hospital several days after being detained by Iran's morality for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly. Western media and Iranian opposition forces immediately alleged that Amini died from injuries sustained from beatings by police. However, authorities later released CCTV footage showing that the young woman did not appear to face any forms of physical abuse while in custody. Tehran has blamed its arch-enemy Israel and the United States for fomenting the unrest in a bid to overthrow the government.

The Amini protests began a day after Iran signed a memorandum to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian political, economic and security bloc whose other members include China, Russia and India.

* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.