The hunt is on for accomplices in the Wednesday terror assaults, setting off a chain of arrests in connection with the first Islamic State terror operation hitting a chief adversary, Iran.
In two roughly simultaneous attacks, three gunmen targeted the parliament in downtown Tehran and two others attacked the Imam Khomeini mausoleum in the south of the metropolis, leaving 17 people dead and 56 wounded. The Intelligence Ministry announced on Friday it had caught dozens of people affiliated with IS in four provinces.
"Following intelligence operations and with the help of families of some terrorists in the provinces of Kermanshah, Kordestan, West Azarbaijan and Tehran, 41 people linked to the Wahhabi Daesh (IS) ... with [bomb-making] equipment have been identified and arrested before conducting any act [of terror]," it said in a statement posted on its website.
Separately, it arrested seven others linked with the "takfiri terrorist group" in Fars Province on Thursday night.
Takfiris believe followers of some Islamic sects including all Shias are apostates punishable by death, and takfir is a core feature of the Wahhabi ideology preached by Saudi-funded clerics across the world.
Trademark of Terrorists
Wahhabism is the trademark of many terror outfits spreading death and destruction in the Middle East for years, including IS, which Iran is deeply involved in fighting with in Syria and Iraq.
The latest detentions in the chain were in Alborz Province, where eight people were arrested on charges of providing logistical support to the assailants.
On Thursday, the Interior Ministry said several people were arrested around the mausoleum on suspicion of collaborating with the two killers on Wednesday. The gunmen aimed to reach the Majlis floor and the mausoleum but failed and clashed with security forces outside.
A five-hour shooting rampage in one office building next to Majlis ended with three attackers shot dead and dozens of casualties.
A minutes-long clash between the two other attackers wearing explosive belts and security guards near the tomb of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, ended with one terrorist blowing himself up, the other killed and several people dead and injured.
The Intelligence Ministry on Thursday identified the five perpetrators as Iranian nationals named Abu Jihad, Qayyum, Fereydoun, Seryas and Ramin.
"The five were known terrorists… [They had] joined the Islamic State, left the country and participated in the group's atrocities in Mosul and Raqqa," it said, referring to an Iraqi city captured by IS in 2014 and its de facto capital in Syria.
The parliament held a funeral ceremony for the victims in Tehran on Friday attended by the top brass.
A separate funeral was held after the Friday prayers in the heart of the capital.
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