The Washington Times - A new terror propaganda video released by the Islamic State terror group on Monday, features the three gunmen purportedly responsible for executing a deadly attack against Iran’s elite military units over the weekend, leaving 25 people dead.
The video was released by the Amaq News Agency, the main social media propaganda channel operated by the group known as ISIS, and featured three armed men wearing military uniforms. The uniforms reportedly match those found on the bodies of the slain gunmen after Saturday’s terror attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz. The video was allegedly shot moments before the ISIS fighters arrived at the city, which lies just 500 miles south of the Iranian capital.
The video was first reported by SITE Intelligence Group, a private firm that monitors jihadist content. Its release comes days after ISIS leaders claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, which targeted a military parade honoring the Iranian military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or IRGC.
Members of a anti-government group dubbed the Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahvaz, have also claimed responsibility, according to recent reports.
Despite ISIS’s claims, Tehran was quick to lay the blame for the attacks on paramilitary forces supported by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
“Terrorist recruited, trained, armed and paid by a foreign regime” were the culprits of Saturday’s attack, which also left scores of civilians dead, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in a Twitter post shortly after the strikes.
“Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their U.S. masters accountable for such attacks,” he added.
Saturday’s attack is the second against Iran by ISIS in the last year. Last June, ISIS fighters launched a pair of coordinated strikes on the Iranian parliament and the shrine dedicated to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomein in Tehran ended with 12 dead and 42 wounded, in the first ever terror attack by the group in the country.
Regional analysts claimed at the time that the attacks were tied to the Trump administration’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia for his first overseas diplomatic trip since taking office in January. The Sunni-dominated country is the regional counterbalance to the Shia-ruled Iran. The trip may have emboldened the terror group’s Sunni leaders enough to take the remarkable step of attacking targets inside Iran.