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LONDON Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran's majority Shi'ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted: "Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy."

He did not explicitly blame any country but the tweet appeared to refer to comments made by Saudi Arabias deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, in May, saying that that Riyadh would bring "the battle" for regional influence to Iran.

Sunni Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the Tehran attacks, but the assault further fuels tensions between Riyadh and Tehran as they vie for control of the Gulf and influence in the wider Islamic world. It comes days after Riyadh and other Sunni Muslim powers cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.

They were the first attacks claimed by Islamic State inside the tightly controlled Shi'ite Muslim country, one of the powers leading the fight against IS forces in nearby Iraq and Syria.

The deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, Reza Seifollhai, told state TV late on Wednesday that the attackers were people from Iran who had joined Islamic State. Iranian police said they had arrested five suspects

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "These fireworks have no effect on Iran. They will soon be eliminated."

"They are too small to affect the will of the Iranian nation and its officials," state TV quoted him saying.

The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Riyadh of being behind the attacks and vowed to seek revenge.

"This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president (Donald Trump) and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists. The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack," a Guards statement said.

Trump said in a statement that he prayed for the victims of the attacks but added that "states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote." The U.S. State Department and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres both condemned the attacks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said he did not know who was responsible for the attacks and said there was no evidence Saudi extremists were involved.

DRESSED AS WOMEN

Attackers dressed as women burst through parliament's main entrance, deputy interior minister Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari said, according to the Tasnim news agency. One of them detonated a suicide vest, he said.

On a video released by the IS news agency Amaq a man purportedly inside the parliament says in Arabic: "Oh God, thank you. [Gunshots]. Do you think we will leave? No! We will remain, God willing."

Police helicopters circled over parliament, with snipers on its rooftop. Within five hours, four attackers were dead and the incident was over, Iranian media said.

"I was inside the parliament when shooting happened. Everyone was shocked and scared. I saw two men shooting randomly," said one journalist at the scene.

Soon after the assault on parliament began, a bomber detonated a suicide vest near the shrine of the Islamic Republic's revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, a few kilometers south of the city, Zolfaghari said.

A second attacker was shot dead, he said. The shrine is a main destination for tourists and religious pilgrims.

"The terrorists had explosives strapped to them and suddenly started to shoot around," said the shrine's overseer, Mohammadali Ansari.

By late evening, deputy interior minister Zolfaghari put the death toll at 13, with 43 wounded.

The Intelligence Ministry said security forces had arrested another "terrorist team" planning a third attack. The National Security Council's Seifollhai said Iran had foiled 58 similar attacks, without specifying a time period.

REGIONAL ANIMOSITY

The attacks follow several weeks of heightened rhetorical animosity between Riyadh and Tehran.

In unusually blunt remarks on May 2, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is Saudi defense minister and a son of King Salman, said he would protect his country from what he called Iranian efforts to dominate the Muslim world.

Any struggle for influence between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and the revolutionary Shi'ite theocracy ought to take place "inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia," he said without elaborating.

The next day Iran accused Saudi Arabia of seeking tension in the region, saying the prince had made "destructive" comments and it was proof that Riyadh supported terrorism.

The attacks could also exacerbate tensions in Iran between newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, who positions himself as a reformer, and his rivals among hardline clergy and the Revolutionary Guards.

But Rouhani said Iran would be more united and more determined in the fight against regional terrorism and violence.

"We will prove once again that we will crush the enemies' plots with more unity and more strength," he said.

In an appeal for unity, Rouhanis chief of staff, Hamid Aboutalebi, took to Twitter to praise the security services.

"Applause to the power and firmness of our revolutionary guards, Basij (volunteer militia), police and security forces," he wrote.

However, two senior government officials, who asked not to be named, said the attacks might prompt a blame game.

"They (hardliners) are very angry and will use every opportunity to grow in strength to isolate Rouhani," said one. The other said the attacks would push Iran toward "a harsher regional policy".

Militant attacks are rare in Tehran and other major cities although two Sunni militant groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been waging a deadly insurgency, mostly in remote areas, for almost a decade.

Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province, in the southeast on the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to the Balouch minority and has long been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents fighting the Shi'ite-led republic.

Last year Iranian authorities said they had foiled a plot by Sunni militants to bomb targets in Tehran and other cities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Asma Alsharif in Cairo, Yeganeh Torbati in Washington, Lisa Barrington in Beirut, David Dolan in Istanbul; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Robin Pomeroy)

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MEXICO CITY German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that putting up walls will not solve problems that countries are seeing due to immigration.

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Islamist militants strike heart of Tehran, Iran blames Saudis ...

The Tehran attack comes as another political battle boils over in the oil-rich Gulf. Iran is not directly involved, but Tehran is one of the reasons for what has erupted into one of the most intense political feuds pitting Gulf Arabs against each other.

At the epicenter of what is a very serious political crisis stands Qatar, accused by its Arab neighbors of all manner of misdeeds -- including supporting terrorism -- and now facing punishing sanctions. Qatar denies the accusations.

Qatar, to be sure, has played a dual role -- helping fight terrorism on one hand, while backing groups with extremist ideology on the other. But now Qatar will have to decide where it stands.

And the United States will have to address a similar issue. While President Donald Trump's tweets indicate his support for Qatar's sudden isolation, the disciplined and diplomatic voices of the State Department and Pentagon indicate otherwise. But Washington needs to speak with one unified voice. The contradictory voices within the administration are not only sending confusing messages, they are projecting an image of chaos in US foreign policy.

So how did this drama unfold?

Despite the fervent claims of Qatari officials that the offending speech never happened, Qatar's neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia, reject the explanation.

There's a reason for that.

The content of the speech that Qatar says never happened echoes Qatar's foreign policy track record. From Doha, Qatar's rulers have spent years conducting policies that are often at odds with the GCC and with the United States.

Qatar has long acted as a maverick, leveraging its huge wealth from natural gas exports to punch above its weight on the global scene.

But Qatar has maintained good relations with Washington, hosting the massive American base al-Udeid, from where 11,000 US and coalition forces launch military operations against targets in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, what's perhaps more upsetting to Saudi Arabia and its allies today are Doha's ties with Tehran at a time when animosity between Iran and Gulf Arabs is greater than ever.

But then Trump started tweeting, directly contradicting what appeared to be American policy. He seemed to praise the sanction and take credit for it, saying his visit to Saudi Arabia was, "already paying off," and noting that when he urged an end to funding radical ideology, "Leaders pointed to Qatar -- look!"

When told about Trump's tweets, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, appeared stunned

Terrorism, diplomatic battles and outright war are already roiling the region. The outcome of the Qatar crisis could tip the balance with respect to Iran and ISIS, and it will affect US and global security for years to come.

But it is America's reaction to the crisis that is showing another, even greater threat to US security -- the lack of a coherent position on foreign policy crises. Not only are America's purported allies divided, but it looks as if the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department are also on different sides.

However, there may be a glimmer of hope. On Wednesday, Trump spoke to Qatar's Emir about finding a solution to the unfolding diplomatic crisis. Following the call, Qatar's government issued a statement to CNN, saying that the President had "expressed readiness to find a solution... and stressed his keenness that the Gulf remains stable."

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Middle East madness engulfs Iran, Qatar and US (opinion ...

Five of the men who launched an attack in the heart of Iran's capital previously fought for the Islamic State group, the country's Intelligence Ministry said Thursday, acknowledging the first such assault by the extremists in the Shiite power.

The attacks Wednesday on Iran's parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary leader killed at least 17 people and wounded over 40, stunning its people.

The ministry issued a statement on its website with bloody pictures of the men's corpses. It identified them by their first names only, saying they didn't want to release their last names due to security and privacy concerns for their families.

It described them as "long affiliated with the Wahhabi," an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. However, it stopped short of directly blaming the kingdom for the attack, though many in the country expressed suspicion Iran's regional rival had a hand in the attack.

The men had left Iran to fight for the extremist group in Mosul, Iraq, as well as Raqqa, Syria the group's de facto capital, the ministry said. It said they returned to Iran in August under the command of an Islamic State leader and escaped when authorities initially broke up their extremist cell.

The ministry did not identify the men's hometowns, nor say how they were able to evade authorities. A woman suspected to be involved in the attack was arrested Wednesday.

Commuters in the Iranian capital noticed police on street corners and motorcycles, more than usual as dawn broke. That came after Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari, a deputy Interior Minister, told state TV that "law enforcement activities may increase."

"We are focused on intelligence" gathering, he said.

The state-run IRNA news agency also reported Thursday that the death toll in the attacks had risen to 17 people killed, citing Ahmad Shojaei, the head of the country's forensic center.

The attack Wednesday as lawmakers held a session in parliament and at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini shocked Iranians who so far had avoided the chaos that has followed the Islamic State group's rise in Syria and Iraq. Iranian forces are backing embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad while the Shiite power also is supporting militias fighting against the extremists in Iraq.

The attack came as emboldened Sunni Arab states backed by U.S. President Donald Trump are hardening their stance against Shiite-ruled Iran.

The White House released a statement from Trump condemning the terrorist attacks in Tehran and offering condolences, but also implying that Iran is itself a sponsor of terrorism.

"We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times," the statement said. "We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote."

The comments sparked anger from Iranians on social media, who recalled the vigils in Tehran that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a tweet on Thursday called the White House comments "repugnant" and accused the U.S. of supporting terror.

"Iranian people reject such U.S. claims of friendship," Zarif tweeted.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks. A statement issued Wednesday evening stopped short of alleging direct Saudi involvement but called it "meaningful" that the attacks followed Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, where he strongly asserted Washington's support for Riyadh.

The statement said Saudi Arabia "constantly supports" terrorists including the Islamic State group, adding that the IS claim of responsibility "reveals (Saudi Arabia's) hand in this barbaric action."

The "spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged," the Revolutionary Guard statement said.

Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told The Associated Press on Wednesday that "the Iranian government should not use the attack in a very polarized situation against Saudi Arabia or claim that Saudi Arabia is somehow linked to the attack, because it isn't."

On the streets of the capital Thursday, Iranians said they remained suspicious that Saudi Arabia had a hand in the attack. Some pointed to comments in May by Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of the King Salman and the kingdom's defense minister, who said his country would "work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia."

"I am sure Persian Gulf Arab countries are behind this," said Nahid Ghanbari, a 21-year-old university student studying accounting. "They have been angry about Iran's power in the region. They look for a way to destabilize our country."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, used the attacks to defend Tehran's involvement in wars abroad. He told a group of students that if "Iran had not resisted," it would have faced even more troubles.

"The Iranian nation will go forward," he added.

The violence began in midmorning when assailants with Kalashnikov rifles and explosives stormed the parliament complex where a legislative session had been in progress. The siege lasted for hours, and one of the attackers blew himself up inside, according to Iran's state TV.

Images circulating in Iranian media showed gunmen held rifles near the windows of the complex. One showed a toddler being handed through a first-floor window to safety outside as an armed man looked on.

As the parliament attack unfolded, gunmen and suicide bombers also struck outside Khomeini's mausoleum on Tehran's southern outskirts. Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah to become Iran's first supreme leader until his death in 1989.

Iran's state broadcaster said a security guard was killed at the tomb and that one of the attackers was slain by security guards. A woman was also arrested. The revered shrine was not damaged.

Police on Thursday said they now held six suspects as part of their investigation into the attacks.

Reza Seifollahi, an official in the country's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by Iranian media as saying that the perpetrators of the attacks were Iranian nationals. He did not elaborate.

Tehran's stock exchange fell nearly 2 percent Thursday after the attacks.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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Iran says 5 Tehran attackers had fought for Islamic State ...

New York Times

Iranian Kurds Are Implicated in Terrorist Attacks in Tehran New York Times TEHRAN The Iranian authorities arrested 41 people Friday in connection with the twin terrorist attacks in Tehran this week, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reported, as evidence mounted that Iranian Kurds affiliated with the Islamic State had ... Islamic State rarely carries out terrorist attacks in Iran. How does Iran prevent them?Los Angeles Times Iran leaders accuse US, Saudis of aiding attackThe Recorder Iran arrests seven Tehran attack suspectsSBS News18 -USA TODAY -The White House all 2,230 news articles »

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Iranian Kurds Are Implicated in Terrorist Attacks in Tehran - New York Times

Kerry called the Iran deals monitoring processes a system thats working, according to the San Francisco Chronicle,and criticized President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress for pushing for new sanctions against the Iranian regime.

It doesnt make sense, folks, to risk a step that gets us nothing, Kerry said of proposed new sanctions onIrans ballistic missile program, according to theChronicle.

Kerry also blasted the Trump administration for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, the Obama administrations other major foreign policy legacy. He reportedly defended his 2014 remark that climate change was a weapon of mass destruction and a threat to national security. Scientists, people whose life is invested in this are telling you, This is growing in instability, and the threat is that whole parts of the ice sheet will break off., Kerry said, according to theChronicle.

As Breitbart News Aaron Klein reported a year ago, the Ploughshares Fundhas been sponsoring national security coverage at National Public Radio (NPR) since 2005, as well as several think tanks that supported the Iran deal. It is also, Klein reported, funded in turn by George Soross Open SocietyFoundations.

NPRs ombudsman foundit had not disclosed Ploughshares funding in reporting on the group and interviewing itspresident and sponsored experts.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the most influential people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author ofHow Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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