Tehran attackers were homegrown Islamic State recruits, says spy agency
Tehran — Perpetrators of the twin attacks in Tehran were recruited inside Iran by Islamic State (IS) and fought in both Iraq and Syria, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry said on Thursday. Five assailants who died in the attacks "had ties to Wahhabi groups", the ministry said in a statement published by Fars news agency, referring to the austere form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. After joining Islamic State they left Iran and "took part in operations in Mosul and Raqqa", according to the statement, which withheld the attackers’ surnames, citing security reasons. A sixth assailant — a female — was caught alive and is being interrogated, Tasnim news agency reported, citing the chairman of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi. The jihadist group had claimed responsibility for the attacks shortly after they occurred on Wednesday. The linkage to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s arch regional foe, was not the first. Shortly after IS claimed the gun and...
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