Tehran: Iran's revolutionary guard lashed out at Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, hours after 12 people were killed and 42 others were wounded in devastating attacks on two potent symbols in Tehran, the capital: Iran's Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Islamic State group immediately said it was behind the attacks, the first time that the Sunni Muslim extremist group has claimed responsibility for an assault in Iran, which is predominantly Shiite Muslim. The group, which views Shiite Muslims as apostates, is battling with Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and in Syria.

Tensions in the Middle East were already high; after a visit by President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia and several Sunni allies led a regional effort Monday to isolate Qatar, the one Persian Gulf country that maintains relations with Iran.

In a statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps faulted both Saudi Arabia and the US government: "The public opinion of the world, especially Iran, recognises this terrorist attack - which took place a week after a joint meeting of the US president and the head of one of the region's backward governments, which constantly supports fundamentalist terrorists - as very significant," clearly referring to Saudi Arabia. The statement also acknowledged the Islamic State's claim of responsibility.

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Link A man hands a child to a security guard from Iran's parliament building in Tehran after an attack on the complex on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Of the 12 victims of the attacks, 11 died at the Parliament building, and one at the mausoleum. In addition, six assailants were killed: four at the Parliament, and two at the mausoleum. Five were men, and one of the mausoleum attackers was a woman.

The attacks unfolded over several hours, starting around 10.30am, when men armed with assault rifles and suicide vests - some of them dressed as women - descended on the Parliament building, killing at least one security guard, and wounding and kidnapping other people. The standoff lasted about four hours.

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The building has been undergoing renovations intended to enhance security, particularly at the entrance, but they have yet to be completed.

In a sign that elite security forces had encountered trouble containing the situation, one attacker left the Parliament an hour into the siege, then ran around shooting on Tehran's streets before returning to the building - where at least one of the assailants blew himself up on the fourth floor as others continued firing from the windows.

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Link The body of a terrorist, at background left, lies on the ground while police control the scene at the shrine of late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran on Wednesday. Photo: AP

"I cannot talk, I'm stuck here and the situation is really dangerous, the shooting is continuing, we are surrounded and I cannot talk," an Iranian journalist, Ehsan Bodaghi, said by phone from inside the building during the standoff, before the call was disconnected. Yelling and screaming could be heard in the background.

Mohammad Ali Saki, editor of The Tehran Times, said in a phone interview that the four assailants at the Parliament building had "targeted guards, cleaners, employees of the administrative and finance sections," but had "never got near the Parliament chamber itself."

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Link Police officers run to take position around Iran's parliament building following an assault by several attackers on Wednesday. Photo: Ali Khara

The assailants were armed with AK-47s and hand grenades and wore what appeared to be explosive vests, he said.

The Islamic State released a graphic 24-minute video showing a bloodied man lying on the ground in Parliament while a gunman in the background shouted in Arabic, "Thank God! Do you think that we are going to leave? We will remain here, God willing."

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Link Then Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini greets well-wishers before casting his vote in 1988. Photo: AP/File

The assault on the mausoleum - about 16 kilometres south of Parliament - began shortly before 11am and lasted for about an hour and a half, state news media reported.

The attacks, the first in Tehran in more than a decade, came just over two weeks after Mr Trump, with Saudi Arabia and its allies, vowed to isolate Iran. Iran has dismissed those remarks, made at a summit meeting in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, as a scheme by Mr Trump to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia.

In the view of many in Iran, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is inextricably linked to Saudi Arabia. "ISIS ideologically, financially and logistically is fully supported and sponsored by Saudi Arabia - they are one and the same," said Hamidreza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are the leading nations on opposing sides of the Middle East split between Shiite and Sunni Islam. Iran has military advisers in Iraq and Syria, and it controls and finances militias in those countries and in Lebanon. Tehran also has some influence over the Houthis fighting the government in Yemen, and it often speaks out in support of Shiites in Bahrain, a majority group that Iran says is repressed by the Sunni monarchy.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of "spearheading global terrorism." Saudi officials say Iran is plotting to control the region. Saudi Arabia, an autocratic kingdom, also opposes Iran's political ideology, which has a clerical supreme leader but also a president, Parliament and city councils, chosen in elections in which both men and women can participate.

On Wednesday morning, only hours before the attacks in Iran, the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said that Iran must be punished for its interference in the region and called Tehran the world's leading supporter of terrorism.

Iran, in turn, has long accused Saudi Arabia of backing terrorists in the region, saying that the kingdom had facilitated the rise of Sunni extremist groups such as the Islamic State and others in Iraq and Syria.

After Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other states cut ties with the gas-rich kingdom of Qatar on Monday, citing its support for Iran, Tehran rushed to fill the void, offering to send food and medicine.

One Iranian security official said the attacks had been a message from Saudi Arabia that was meant to teach Iran a lesson. He also said the assaults were intended to test Iran's reaction.

Others questioned Tehran's decision to rise to the defense of Qatar. "We are wrong to suddenly seek close ties with Qatar," said Saeed Laylaz, an economist close to the government. "They have been bankrolling the Sunni terrorist groups, in the same way the Saudis have."

Raz Zimmt, a scholar at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University who specialises in Iranian affairs, said the attacks were unprecedented in that they had occurred in the heart of Tehran.

"I have no doubt that the Iranian regime is going to blame ISIS and Saudi Arabia, since that serves the official Iranian position," he said in an interview on Israeli radio. "We've heard for the past two years, more or less, that if the Revolutionary Guards stop operating in Syria and Iraq, the terrorists are going to make their way into Iran. As far as they're concerned, it doesn't matter if it was ISIS or wasn't."

While terrorist attacks have become relatively commonplace in Europe and in most of the Middle East, Iran had remained comparatively safe. During May's election campaign, President Hassan Rouhani often pointed to that fact, lauding the country's security forces and intelligence agencies for their vigilance.

The coordinated terrorist attacks on Wednesday brought such feelings of security to an end, one analyst said. "Today, it was proved that we are vulnerable too," the analyst, Nader Karimi Joni, said. "We must anticipate more attacks by the Islamic State, now that we are defeating them in Iraq and Syria," he added.

Terrorism in Iran has been relatively rare, though for many years, the country suffered from a long and bitter campaign of attacks by an armed opposition group, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a Marxist-Islamic organisation that for decades was supported by the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. In many of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq's attacks, its members would take cyanide when cornered. In 2012, the group was taken off the United States' list of terrorist organisations with the support of conservative Republican politicians.

The attacks in Iran came as the Islamic State faces increasing pressure on the battlefield. The territory of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria is shrinking. US-backed forces in Syria began major operations on Monday to seize Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital. Many Islamic State fighters have been decamping to the Syrian city of Mayadeen further south. In Iraq, fierce fighting is underway for the city of Mosul, with Iranian-backed militias and US warplanes aiding the Iraqi military.

A common Islamic State tactic, when it loses territory, is to create a distraction and to try to bolster morale among its followers by staging attacks abroad. The suicide bombing in Manchester, England, on May 22, and the terrorist attack on London on Saturday night fit that pattern.

New York Times</s>A man hands a child to a security guard from Iran's parliament building after an assault of several attackers, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 7, 2017. Suicide bombers and gunmen stormed into Iran's parliament and targeted the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Wednesday, killing a security guard and wounding 12 other people in rare twin attacks, with the siege at the legislature still underway. (Fars News Agency, Omid Vahabzadeh via AP)

A man hands a child to a security guard from Iran's parliament building after an assault of several attackers, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 7, 2017. Suicide bombers and gunmen stormed into Iran's parliament and targeted the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Wednesday, killing a security guard and wounding 12 other people in rare twin attacks, with the siege at the legislature still underway. (Fars News Agency, Omid Vahabzadeh via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Wednesday for a pair of stunning attacks on Iran’s parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40.

Tehran Police Chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia announced late Wednesday night that five suspects had been detained for interrogation, according to a report in the semi-official ISNA news agency. Sajedinia did not offer any further details.

Reza Seifollahi, an official in the country’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the independent Shargh daily as saying that the perpetrators of the attacks were Iranian nationals. He did not elaborate.

The bloodshed shocked the country and came as emboldened Sunni Arab states — backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — are hardening their stance against Shiite-ruled Iran.

The White House released a statement from Trump condemning the terrorist attacks in Tehran and offering condolences, but also implying that Iran is itself a sponsor of terrorism.

“We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,” the statement said. “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”

In recent years, Tehran has been heavily involved in conflicts in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State, but had remained untouched by IS violence around the world. Iran has also battled Saudi-backed Sunni groups in both countries.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks. A statement issued Wednesday evening stopped short of alleging direct Saudi involvement but called it “meaningful” that the attacks followed Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he strongly asserted Washington’s support for Riyadh.

The statement said Saudi Arabia “constantly supports” terrorists including the Islamic State group, adding that the IS claim of responsibility “reveals (Saudi Arabia’s) hand in this barbaric action.”

The “spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged,” the Revolutionary Guard statement said.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, used the attacks to defend Tehran’s involvement in wars abroad. He told a group of students that if “Iran had not resisted,” it would have faced even more troubles.

“The Iranian nation will go forward,” he added.

The violence began in midmorning when assailants with Kalashnikov rifles and explosives stormed the parliament complex where a legislative session had been in progress. The siege lasted for hours, and one of the attackers blew himself up inside, according to Iran’s state TV.

Images circulating in Iranian media showed gunmen held rifles near the windows of the complex. One showed a toddler being handed through a first-floor window to safety outside as an armed man looks on.

The IS group’s Aamaq news agency released a 24-second video purportedly shot inside the complex, showing a bloody, lifeless body on the floor next to a desk.

An Associated Press reporter saw several police snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings. Police helicopters circled the parliament and all mobile phone lines from inside were disconnected.

Shops in the area were closed as gunfire rang out and officials urged people to avoid public transportation. Witnesses said the attackers fired from the parliament building’s fourth floor at people in the streets.

“I was passing by one of the streets. I thought that children were playing with fireworks, but I realized people are hiding and lying down on the streets,” Ebrahim Ghanimi, who was around the parliament building, told the AP. “With the help of a taxi driver, I reached a nearby alley.”

As the parliament attack unfolded, gunmen and suicide bombers also struck outside Khomeini’s mausoleum on Tehran’s southern outskirts. Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah to become Iran’s first supreme leader until his death in 1989.

Iran’s state broadcaster said a security guard was killed at the tomb and that one of the attackers was slain by security guards. A woman was also arrested. The revered shrine was not damaged.

The Interior Ministry said six assailants were killed — four at the parliament and two at the tomb. A senior Interior Ministry official told Iran’s state TV the male attackers wore women’s attire.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the attacks a cowardly act.

Saudi Arabia and Iran regularly accuse each other of supporting extremists in the region. Saudi Arabia has long pointed to the absence of IS attacks in Iran as a sign of Tehran’s culpability. For its part, Iran has cited Saudi Arabia’s support for jihadists and its backing of hard-line Sunni fighters in Syria.

Trump’s first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia last month positioned the U.S. firmly on the side of the kingdom and other Arab states in their stance against Iran. His assurances of Washington’s support emboldened hawkish royals in Saudi Arabia, which is at war in Yemen against Iranian-allied rebels.

The attacks are likely to deepen enmity and sharpen the regional battle for power between the two rivals. Tensions are running high this week following a cut in ties between key Arab powers and Qatar over accusations that the energy-rich nation supports terrorist groups and is aligning itself too closely with Iran.

Saudi Arabia has been a target of numerous lethal attacks by IS affiliates who see the kingdom’s Western-allied leadership as heretics. The group has also targeted Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. IS militants are fighting Iranian-backed forces in Syria and Iraq, and they view Shiites as apostates.

Nelly Lahoud, an expert on extremism at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, said IS leaders may be looking to rally supporters through the attacks in Iran as they lose ground in Syria and Iraq.

“Now that they are unable to maintain the promise of territory, attacking Iran is to their advantage,” she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if this were planned for a long time.”

On March 27, the IS group posted a 37-minute video in Farsi threatening Iran. The Clarion Project said the speakers claimed to represent various Iranian Sunni ethnic groups, such as the Baluchis and Ahvazis, and encouraged Iranian Sunnis to join the group.

Wednesday’s attacks, during the holy month of Ramadan that is observed by both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, came as the Islamic State is competing with al-Qaida for jihadi recruits.

Arab separatists are active in Iran’s southern city of Ahvaz, where they killed two policemen three weeks ago. Though most Iranians are Shiite, including separatists in Ahvaz, the eastern Baloch region is majority Sunni, although there are no recent census figures available. There is also a significant Sunni population in southern Hormozgan province.

The attacks drew condemnation from Iran’s allies — and also from the United States. That was notable because of the deep distrust between Tehran and Washington, which don’t have diplomatic relations.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. expressed condolences to the victims and their families.

“The depravity of terrorism has no place in a peaceful, civilized world,” Nauert said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences and confirmed Moscow’s willingness to aid its ally. Syria’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the attacks, which it said were backed by various governments that it did not specify.

The IS group often claims attacks around the world, even when links to the group cannot be confirmed. Iranian security officials have not said who might have been behind the attacks, although state media called the assailants “terrorists.”

There are concerns that a doubling down on security could lead to a wider clampdown on the opposition in Iran. Rights group Amnesty International urged Iranian authorities to carry out impartial investigations into the attacks.

Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at King’s College London, said the attacks could provoke a disproportionate counterterrorism response in Iran.

“Iranian officials will be called upon to step up intervention in Iraq (and) Syria big time,” he said, adding that Wednesday’s attacks will significantly boost IS morale amid battlefield defeats.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran; Sarah El Deeb and Phillip Issa in Beirut; Lori Hinnant in Paris; and producers Mohammad Nasiri and Mahdi Fattahi, and cameraman Saeed Sarmadi in Tehran contributed.</s>There have been multiple attacks in the Iranian capital of Tehran, according to state media.

A woman was arrested after a bomb attack and shooting spree wounded two people at the Ayatollah Khomeini mausoleum south of the city Wednesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reports.

The news agency reported that a second attacker is currently surrounded by security officers.

That attack occurred at the same time as a shooting in the Iranian parliament, in which at least three people were injured after an attacker stormed the building in central Tehran, according to state-run Press TV.

The broadcaster previously reported that one of the wounded included a security guard.

Iran’s parliament, also called the Islamic Consultative Assembly or Majlis, has 290 members. It has female members and has representatives for religious minorities including Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews.

It is currently unclear how the attacker or attackers entered the parliament building, which is highly fortified, with multiple security checkpoints.

Gun ownership is tightly controlled in Iran, meaning those who carried out the attacks on the parliament and the shrine likely had to smuggle their weapons into the country.

The location of the second attack is extremely symbolic, targeting the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder and first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He led the revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979 and was Iran’s leader for 10 years.

The mausoleum is located around 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the parliament.

Terrorist attacks in Iran are rare, but the country — with its largely Shiite population — has been involved in military actions against Sunni terrorist groups such as ISIS, who regard Shiites as apostates.

Last year, Iran’s government said it thwarted “one of the biggest plots” by terror groups targeting Tehran and other major cities during the month of Ramadan. This year’s holy month started almost two weeks ago on May 26.

The last major attack in Iran was in 2010 when a Sunni extremist group carried out a suicide attack against a mosque in Sistan-Baluchistan killing 39 people. Kurdish groups have carried out small scale attacks against Iranian security forces in the north-west of the country.</s>LONDON, June 7 (Reuters) - Armed men launched two attacks in Iran's capital on Wednesday morning, killing a guard at the parliament and wounding several people in the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in southern Tehran, state media reported.

Lawmaker Elias Hazrati said three assailants, one with a pistol and two with AK-47 assault rifles, raided parliament, according the state television website.

ISNA news agency quoted a member of the parliament as saying that all the parliament doors were shut and one of the assailants was surrounded by the security forces.

In a separate incident, an armed man opened fire at the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini and wounded a number of people, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

ISNA quoted an unnamed source saying that the attacker at the mausoleum had blown himself up. The identity and the motivation of the assailant was still unclear, Tasnim said.</s>Two people were killed in twin attacks on Iran's parliament and the grounds of revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini's mausoleum on Wednesday, state media reported, along with a female suicide bomber.

A security guard was killed when gunmen burst into Tehran's parliament complex, while a gardener was killed when armed assailants entered the grounds of Khomeini's mausoleum in the south of the city, the ISNA news agency reported.

Lawmaker Elias Hazrati told state television three assailants, one with a pistol and two with AK-47 assault rifles, raided parliament.

Another lawmaker said one of the assailants was surrounded by security forces and all the doors to the building had been closed, ISNA news agency reported.

“I was inside the parliament when shooting happened. Everyone was shocked and scared. I saw two men shooting randomly,” said one journalist at the scene, who asked not to be named.

Around half an hour later, an armed man opened fire at the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini and wounded a number of people, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

State news agency IRNA quoted an official at the mausoleum as saying that the attacker had blown himself up after shooting at people.

The identity and the motivation of the assailant was still unclear, Tasnim said.</s>At Least 7 Killed After Gunmen Raid Iran Parliament and Mausoleum

Attackers raided Iran’s parliament and opened fire at the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini a few kilometers south of the capital on Wednesday morning, in near simultaneous assaults that killed up to seven people, media reported.

Tasmin news agency said there were unconfirmed reports that the attackers had taken four hostages inside the parliament building.

Three assailants, one with a pistol and two with AK-47 assault rifles, carried out the attack in central Tehran, lawmaker Elias Hazrati told state television.

Another lawmaker said one of the assailants was surrounded by security forces and all the doors to the building had been closed, ISNA news agency reported. The attackers killed seven people and wounded several others, Tasmin said.

“I was inside the parliament when shooting happened. Everyone was shocked and scared. I saw two men shooting randomly,” said one journalist at the scene, who asked not to be named.

Around half an hour later, an attacker opened fire at the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, injuring several members of the public, Iran’s English-language Press TV said.

State news agency IRNA quoted an official at the mausoleum as saying the attacker had set off a suicide bomb after shooting at people.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini launched the Islamic revolution in 1979. Iranian TV said parliament had resumed, and broadcast footage of what it said was the opening session proceeding normally.

This is a breaking news story, please check back later for more.

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Also, Like us on facebook</s>Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) and the Mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in the capital Tehran have come under armed attack, for which ISIS now claims responsibility.

At least four gunmen have reportedly intruded into the premises of the Majlis, opening fire on the security guards there.

According to Tasnim news agency, at least eight people have been injured in the shooting attack on Wednesday.

Two people are said to have died in the firefight. The assault has forced a lockdown on the legislature.</s>Headline: Iran: Suicide and gun attack at mausoleum and parliament a horrific assault on human life

© AFP/Getty ImagesThe group calling itself Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for today’s suicide bombing and gun attack at parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, the first Leader of Islamic Republic, which killed a number of people and injured dozens in Tehran. In response, Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said:

 “The coordinated attack today at parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum was a brutal and deliberate assault on civilians carried out in cold blood. There can never be a justification for targeting civilians. The group calling itself Islamic State (IS) has again displayed its utter contempt for human life and fundamental principles of humanity.

 “The Iranian authorities must promptly carry out an impartial and independent investigation into this attack and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials, without violating the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment and without recourse to the death penalty as punishment.”

 International Region:</s>12 Killed, Many Injured in Iran Parliament Attack as ISIS Claims Responsibility

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – No fewer than 12 people were killed while many injured Wednesday as twin bomb explosion hit the Iranian parliament building and Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in the capital, Tehran.

After hours of intermittent gunfire there, the attack on the parliament subsided. A suspected suicide bomber detonated a device at the mausoleum, as the Iranian officials managed to foil a third attack, which has been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) fighters.

The claimed attack by IS was the first in Iran since 2011 the group has entangled with the neighbouring Iraq’s authority.

Gunmen reportedly armed with Kalashnikovs entered the parliament on Wednesday morning and unleashed terror. Later, security operatives surrounded the building, leading to heavy gunfire.

Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities have denied that there had been a hostage situation inside the parliament building.

Reports said the suspected gunmen entered the parliament via a public entrance, and disguised as women.

It was reported that suspected four attackers inside the parliament building had been killed by security forces.

The attack started about 10:40 (06:10 GMT) when the terrorists at the mausoleum in southern Tehran, which is dedicated to the late Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Khomeini, opened fire.

In the meantime, Tehran Governor has reportedly confirmed that one attacker has detonated a suicide vest while another had been killed by security forces.</s>Two teams of attackers used gunfire and explosives to strike Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran Wednesday, according to state media. The twin attacks reportedly wounded at least 38 people and killed at least two people.

"Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari said that the terrorists had entered the parliament in [women's] dress," Iran's state news agency reports. It adds that a female assailant detonated herself outside the mausoleum.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry says it foiled a third attack and is asking people to avoid public transportation, state broadcaster IRIB reports.

IRIB says that one of four attackers exploded a suicide vest inside the parliament building, though other local news agencies said the explosion may have been caused by grenades thrown by the attackers. Eight people were reportedly wounded in the attack.

Despite the violence at Iran's Majlis, or parliament, Wednesday morning, lawmakers returned to business by the afternoon. Officials say the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped security forces control the situation.

"As you know, some coward terrorists infiltrated a building in Majlis [Parliament], but they were seriously confronted," Speaker Ali Larijani said. "This is a minor issue but reveals that the terrorists pursue troublemaking."

The second attack, at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, reportedly killed a security guard and wounded 12 other people. A suicide bomber also detonated an explosive vest at the Khomeini mausoleum. Four attackers were said to have launched the attack at the shrine.

NPR's Alison Meuse in Beirut reports that Islamic State, via its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Alison translates: "Fighters from the Islamic State have attacked the Khomeini shrine and the parliament building in central Tehran."

The report quotes an ISIS "security source," which Alison says is typical.

Iran is deeply involved in the fight against ISIS, both in Iraq and Syria, and together with Russia is a major backer of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Gunmen attack the Islamic Consultative Assembly and Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, Iran. Eighteen civilians are killed in the attack on the Parliament and one in the attack on the mausoleum.