Iran's parliament and Khomeini shrine attacked by gunmen

[EC]

Armed individuals have opened fire at the Iranian parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini in the capital, Tehran, causing a number of casualties.

Heavy gunfire could be heard on an audio recording from inside the parliament chamber, and there are reports that a security guard has died.

Several people were injured at the shrine, dedicated to the founder of the modern Islamic republic.

There was one suicide bomber and two or three other gunmen.

Ali Khalili from the mausoleum's public relations office told IRNA news agency that one of the armed men detonated himself in front of a bank outside the mausoleum.

However Fars News said that the suicide bomber was a woman.

The Iranian Labour News Agency reported that two attackers had been arrested.

Five people were wounded at the shrine, and one person confirmed dead, it said.

Latest reports suggest the attack at Iran's parliament is ongoing.

An image posted by Tasmin News showed what appeared to be a gunman holding an assault weapon shooting out from an upstairs window of the parliament building.

MP Seyyed Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) that three gunmen were still in the building, in MPs' offices.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-40184641

[EC]

Update, same URL.

12 dead.

[TomSea]

Iran has a lot of security in that country if not being close to what I'd call a "police state."  What a surprise for ISIS to pull off something like this. 

Really horrible news; but we've had a steady stream of these kinds of stories for quite a period of time recently.

http://www.vocativ.com/436519/isis-outlet-publishes-video-allegedly-from-tehran-parliament-attack/

[TomSea]

Being a big soccer/football world cup fan, I use to read an Iranian soccer forum run mainly by Iranians living in the US and I'd gleam a bit on opinions on what these persons thought about their home country.  It was rather interesting.  A lot of them preferred the Shah.

[TomSea]

Live updates, Radio Free Europe:

https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-shooting-attacks-parliament-khomeini-shrine/28533065.html

[txradioguy]

It's about time they got a dose of their own medicine.

[Wingnut]

Muslims killing muslims.   All is right in the world.

[dfwgator]

Muslims killing muslims.   All is right in the world.

[EC]

Muslims killing muslims.   All is right in the world.

I'm glad I don't live in your world.

[Right_in_Virginia]

@TomSea ---- I can't find an update on the motive.  Is it Iran's support of Assad?

[Wingnut]

I'm glad I don't live in your world.

It's what they do.  Their world. Their rules.

[skeeter]

It's about time they got a dose of their own medicine.

I too am having real difficulty ginning up sympathy for the Iranian parliament here.

[TomSea]

@TomSea ---- I can't find an update on the motive.  Is it Iran's support of Assad?

Anyone should try to answer your question such as @EC and anyone else.

I'd say this is basically Sunni radicals striking at the heart of the Shia giant in the area which is Iran.

But the fact, that apparently ISIS did it, makes this even more horrible. Hard to see this happening.

[TomSea]

I too am having real difficulty ginning up sympathy for the Iranian parliament here.

I'm not so sure about this. ISIS allegedly did it. Some folks don't see Iran as anywhere at the level of danger as ISIS Salafist and Wahabbist teaching. But I'm no expert either.  I wish we had one.

Interestingly, the editorial by Daniel Larison was published the other day in one of the forums here.

He seems to not see Iran as any kind of a danger as the radical teachings that some Sunnis follow.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/

I'm going to have to read his columns more.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/isis-claims-responsibility-for-tehran-attacks/

But without a doubt, Iran hassles Israel; there is no doubt about that and Iran has their own share of wrongdoing. Shias are also outnumbered by the Sunnis, something like 80% of all Muslims are Sunni, Shias 20%, something like this.

[TomSea]

Whatever ISIS is and these other radicals attacking in the West are; they are a death cult. They are also taking from their scripture.  And there are millions of them. These are legitimate questions.

[skeeter]

I'm not so sure about this. ISIS allegedly did it. Some folks don't see Iran as anywhere at the level of danger as ISIS Salafist and Wahabbist teaching. But I'm no expert either.  I wish we had one.

Interestingly, the editorial by Daniel Larison was published the other day in one of the forums here.

He seems to not see Iran as any kind of a danger as the radical teachings that some Sunnis follow.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/

I'm going to have to read his columns more.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/isis-claims-responsibility-for-tehran-attacks/

But without a doubt, Iran hassles Israel; there is no doubt about that and Iran has their own share of wrongdoing. Shias are also outnumbered by the Sunnis, something like 80% of all Muslims are Sunni, Shias 20%, something like this.

I also think its pretty clear that Iran has killed hundreds of Americans by proxy. There is no doubt they (with the wahabbis) are the primary source of support for Islamic terror worldwide.

Naw, the leaders in Iran can rot in the bed they've made.

[TomSea]

I also think its pretty clear that Iran has killed hundreds of Americans by proxy. There is no doubt they (with the wahabbis) are the primary source of support for Islamic terror worldwide.

Naw, the leaders in Iran can rot in the bed they've made.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

And it's said the US and UK helped orchestrate a coup of a Democratically elected leader in Iran in 1953.

Naw, that's not going to endear the US to them.

[Frank Cannon]

Eff em.....

[TomSea]

Shia terrorism is probably relatively minor to the terrorism we read about every day.

Paris, Brussels, England.

Persecution of Christians in Egypt and other places.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Philippines, Africa, Boko Haram, El Shabaab, Somalia.  Chechnya, etc.

The Shias have little to do with this, the Armenian genocide, 100 years ago, the persecution genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh in the early 1970s.

We need to get the facts on all of this.

[thackney]

Shia terrorism is probably relatively minor to the terrorism we read about every day.

Paris, Brussels, England.

Persecution of Christians in Egypt and other places.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Philippines, Africa, Boko Haram, El Shabaab, Somalia.  Chechnya, etc.

The Shias have little to do with this, the Armenian genocide, 100 years ago, the persecution genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh in the early 1970s.

We need to get the facts on all of this.

Perceiving the Shia Dimension of Terrorism
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/perceiving-the-shia-dimension-of-terrorism
February 2017

In trying to figure out what to do about ISIS, the international community seems to have
forgotten the other side of the coin, that is, Iran’s Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and other
places in the region. Countering terrorism requires a broader look at terrorist groups, and
understanding that they feed on each other’s sectarian rhetoric.

ISIS uses an anti-Shia sectarian rhetoric to recruit fighters, and Iran does the same with
an increasingly anti-Sunni—or anti-Takfiri—rhetoric. To defeat ISIS, one must not ignore
Iran’s armed militias and their atrocities in the region, and vice versa. However, this does not
mean that the solution is to bomb Iran’s militias in Syria and Iraq, or continue bombing ISIS
away. With the Russian involvement in Syria, the integration of Popular Mobilization Units
(PMU) in Iraq’s army, and Hizballah’s control of Lebanon’s state institutions, a military solution
is not that simple....

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/opeds/Ghaddar20170228-GeorgetownSecurityStudies_1.pdf

[skeeter]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

And it's said the US and UK helped orchestrate a coup of a Democratically elected leader in Iran in 1953.

Naw, that's not going to endear the US to them.

I hope you aren't implying that the Iranians are justified in sponsoring terrorism today.

[Oceander]

I hope you aren't implying that the Iranians are justified in sponsoring terrorism today.

fwiw, I didn't take the comment that way. 

[skeeter]

fwiw, I didn't take the comment that way.

How should his point be taken?

@TomSea

[TomSea]

I hope you aren't implying that the Iranians are justified in sponsoring terrorism today.

Just as much as one could get absurd and say, if one didn't see this attack as an affront, perhaps one is supporting ISIS. IOW, ridiculous.

@skeeter

This philosophy of ISIS seems to want to take over the whole world, they or their sympathizers are almost everywhere. Australia, Asia, Americas, Europe, Africa.

[txradioguy]

I hope you aren't implying that the Iranians are justified in sponsoring terrorism today.

He's just repeating some Ron Paul silliness from 2008.  Dr. Nuts used the 1953 coup to blame America for all of the turmoil in the ME today as part of his radical isolationist view on U.S. foreign policy.  It's a subtle swipe at his own country much in the same vein as when he blamed the U.S. for 9/11.