File image.
On October 26, more than a dozen people were killed as a result of a terrorist attack that targeted a Shia religious shrine in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement released by its news agency, Amaq, the terrorist group said that one of its members opened fire on worshippers at the Shah Cheragh shrine “killing at least 20 Shias and wounded dozens of others.”
Official Iranian sources put the death toll from the terrorist attack at 15. More than 40 other people were reportedly wounded.
Shiraz is a popular destination for pilgrimages and tourism. The Shah Cheragh shrine is an especially important site for Shia religious pilgrims.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said the attack in Shiraz would not go unanswered, vowing to hold the perpetrators accountable.
“Experience shows that Iran’s enemies, after failing to create a split in the nation’s united ranks, take revenge through violence and terror. This evil will definitely not go unanswered, and the security and law enforcement agencies will teach a lesson to those who designed the attack,” Raisi said.
It’s worth noting that the attack came as Iran continues to face protests since the September death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died after she was detained by the morality police for wearing an improper hijab.
A day after the attack, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called for unity in the face of enemies’ plots against Iran.
“We all share the duty to deal a blow to the warmongering enemy and its treacherous and foolish cohorts; All our people ranging from the security apparatuses and the judicial officials to the activists who are active in the field of thoughts and media must be united against the current that disregards and disrespects people’s lives, their security, and their sacred sites,” the leader said in a message.
Major General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), condemned the terrorist attack in Shiraz in a statement, vowing that ISIS will soon face the “wrath of anger and revenge of the Iranian nation.”
This was ISIS’s first terrorist attack in Iran in a long while. Iran will likely respond to the attack very soon. The IRGC could attack hideouts of ISIS in Iraq or Syria with missiles and drones, as it did on several occasions in the past.
