Over a Dozen Dead, Scores Injured After Armed Group Opens Fire Near Mausoleum in Iran
Iranians carry the coffins at Shah Cheragh shrine of Shiraz on April 15, 2008 during the funeral of the people who were killed in a mosque blast on April 12 in the southern city of Shiraz. 
Being updatedThe 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. The mosque complex is considered one of the most beautiful in the world.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 over 40 others.Local media have issued conflicting reports on the number of gunmen involved, with attack reportedly perpetrated by between one and three people. Two suspects are said to have been detained, with a third managing to escape.Footage has emerged on social media showing what is thought to be security cam footage of an attacker entering the mosque facility.Senior Fars Province official Esmail Mohebi-Pour said the terrorists opened fire on parishioners as they gathered for evening prayers.Sources told the Nour News Agency that the suspected terrorists are not Iranian nationals, with other media reporting that Daesh (ISIS)* has claimed responsibility for the carnage.The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, an elite 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 millions of Sunnis, Shia and Christians residing in the two countries.
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."
“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 stressed 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.”Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani tweeted Wednesday night that the holy site at Shah Cheragh has been “drowned in blood,” and slammed the “false defenders of human rights” seeking 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 of the people of Iran. For them, the ends justify the means.”* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
