Iran the target of terrorism since the Revolution: nytimes

“While the United States and Israel have accused Iran of fomenting terrorism in the Middle East, Iran itself has also been the target of terrorist attacks since the Islamic Revolution”, writes the New York Times.


The New York Times in an article broadcasted on February 16, 2019 has referred to some terrorist attacks in Iran in the past two years on the occasion of the recent suicide bombing in Sistan and Baluchestan, which the American newspaper described it as “the deadliest attacks in Iran in years”.


“While the United States and Israel have accused Iran of fomenting terrorism in the Middle East, Iran itself has also been the target of terrorist attacks since the Islamic Revolution”, writes the New York Times.


The first terrorist attack that the American daily mentions, is Ahvaz military parade attack in the last September. On 22 September 2018, gunmen killed at least 25 people and wounded 60 in an assault on a military parade in Ahvaz, in southwestern Iran, where Arab separatists are active. The victims were a mix of Revolutionary Guards members and civilian onlookers.


The other terrorist incident that the New York Times recounts, refers to the 2017 Tehran attacks. On 7 June 2017 armed assailants stormed the Parliament building and the tomb of Iran’s revolutionary founder, in coordinated assaults that left at least 12 people dead. The Islamic State claimed responsibility, boasting that the attacks were its first ever against Iran.


On February 13, 2019, an agent of the so-called Jaish ul-Adl terrorist group driving a car full of explosives had detonated it near a bus carrying Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel on the Khash–Zahedan road in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. At least 27 Revolutionary Guards have been killed in the suicide bomb attack, 13 Guards were also wounded.


The attack came against the backdrop of a two-day diplomatic meeting in Warsaw organized by the United States with the presence of Israel and Arab regimes of the region. These governments have always supported armed terrorist groups inside Iran with money, intelligence and weapons. A southeastern Iranian province, Sistan and Baluchistan, is home to several extremist Sunni groups such as Jaish al-Adl that have committed sporadic bombings, assassinations and other attacks on Iranian security forces and officials.