After apprehending a lone gunman in connection with the killing of at least one person at a Shia shrine, Iranian authorities have now arrested four additional suspects, as reported by state media on Monday.
The attack occurred less than a year after a similar incident at the same sacred location, the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province in the southern region of Iran.
The Fars provincial chief justice, Kazem Mousavi, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency, stating that “four suspects have been detained so far in relation to the attack.”
These four arrests are in addition to the lone gunman whose apprehension was announced on Sunday night by Yadollah Bouali, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Fars, during a statement on state TV.
Aside from the fatality, eight individuals were wounded in the attack, according to IRNA.
Although no immediate claim of responsibility has been made, Fars provincial governor Mohammad Hadi Imanieh attributed the attack to the militant group Islamic State (IS).
Imanieh informed state TV that the assailant aimed “to avenge the execution of two terrorists” who were convicted of carrying out a similar attack in the previous year.
On October 26, a mass shooting at the shrine resulted in the death of 13 people and injuries to 30 others. Subsequently, IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iran executed two men publicly on July 8 for their involvement in the killings, following their conviction on charges of “corruption on earth, armed rebellion, and acting against national security,” as reported by the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website.
In the same case, three other defendants were sentenced to prison terms of five, 15, and 25 years for their affiliation with IS, as revealed by Moussavi.
In November, Iran declared the arrest of 26 “takfiri terrorists” from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan in relation to the mass shooting. In Iran, the term “takfiri” typically refers to extremists or followers of radical Sunni Islam.
The Shah Cheragh mausoleum houses the tomb of Ahmad, brother of Imam Reza — the eighth Shia imam — and is considered the holiest site in southern Iran.
The incident from the previous year took place during widespread protests in Iran, which erupted following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested for allegedly violating strict dress codes for women.
