Gunmen kill 25 in attack on Iran military parade

Gunmen fired on a military parade in southwestern Iran on Saturday, killing 25 people, almost half of them members of the Revolutionary Guards, state news agencies reported.

The attack, which wounded more than 60 people, and one of the worst attacks ever on the elite force, targeted a stand where Iranian officials had gathered in the city of Ahvaz to watch an annual event marking the start of the Islamic Republic’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.

An Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement called the Ahvaz National Resistance, which seeks a separate state in oil-rich Khuzestan province, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Islamic State militants also claimed responsibility. Neither claim provided evidence. All four attackers were killed.

Women and children also died in the assault, state news IRNA agency reported.