Iran Says Tehran Assailants Were Recruited Inside the Country
By THOMAS ERDBRINKJUNE 8, 2017
At least five assailants in the deadly Tehran attacks were recruited by the Islamic State from
inside Iran, the government said Thursday, a strong indication they were Iranian citizens.
A government statement issued Thursday about the attacks said the male assailants had left Iran at an unspecified
time to fight for the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and in Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital.
The new detail about the assailants, who were killed during the attacks on Wednesday, came as the Iranian news media reported
that the civilian casualty toll had risen to 17 dead and 52 wounded, and as the police presence in the Iranian capital increased noticeably.
In March, the Islamic State released a video featuring Iranian fighters, in which it called on Sunnis in Iran to form cells
and attack Shiite forces, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzed the video.
"There is this belief in the world that Saudi Arabia is the ideological source of these terrorist movements,
but it is too soon to say Saudi Arabia was behind the attack because we don’t want to make statements without evidence," Mr. Alavi was quoted by the Iranian Students’ News Agency as saying during a visit to victims at a Tehran hospital.
A southeastern province, Sistan and Baluchistan, is home to several extremist Sunni groups
that have committed bombings, assassinations and other attacks on Iranian security forces and officials in recent times.