Iran says gunman who attacked Shia shrine dies

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – The gunman who carried out a deadly attack at a popular Shia shrine in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz has died, officials said on Saturday.

Esmail Mohebbipour, the deputy governor of Fars province, said in statements cited by local media that the attacker, who sustained wounds during the attack, died at a local hospital in the provincial capital.

The official, who had on Friday reported about the unidentified attacker's critical condition, said he succumbed to his wounds "despite efforts to keep him alive".

A total of 15 people died in Wednesday’s attack on the Shah Cheragh shrine, including a woman and three children, after the Kalashnikov-yielding man barged inside the 12th-century shrine and opened fire at pilgrims.

A public funeral for the victims was held in Shiraz on Saturday in the presence of top political and military officials.

CCTV footage released after the attack showed the man shooting at two security guards at the entrance before firing indiscriminately at people in the main compound and inside the shrine just before evening prayers.

After Iranian security forces arrived at the scene, they shot at the attacker and took him away in a badly wounded condition.

The Daesh/ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack through its affiliated news agency Amaq, without specifying the attacker's nationality.

Nour News, affiliated with Iran's top security body, said he was a foreign national.

It was the first attack claimed by the Daesh/ISIS group in Iran since 2017, when five heavily-armed men attacked the Iranian parliament building and the mausoleum of the country's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, in Tehran, killing 17 and injuring hundreds.

Wednesday’s shrine attack came amid widespread protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody last month.

Top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, have vowed to "punish the perpetrators" of the attack.