Iran shrine attack mourners chant against Mahsa Amini ‘riots’

Mourners gathered Saturday in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz to bury the victims of a deadly assault on a shrine. (INA/AFP)

• At least 15 people were killed Wednesday in a key Shiite Muslim shrine in the city

TEHRAN: Mourners gathered Saturday in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz to bury the victims of a deadly assault on a shrine, while chanting slogans against nationwide “riots” over Mahsa Amini’s death.
At least 15 people were killed Wednesday in a key Shiite Muslim shrine in the city, according to official media, in an attack claimed by the Daesh group.
The shooting at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum came on the same day that thousands of people across Iran paid tribute to Amini, 40 days after her death in police custody.
Amini, 22, died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the country’s Islamic dress code for women.
Remarks made Thursday by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the Shiraz attack, one of the country’s deadliest in years, with the protests and “riots” following Amini’s death.
“The intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country’s progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts,” he said in televised remarks.
During Saturday’s funeral processions in Iran, the crowd also chanted slogans condemning the United States, Israel and Britain for allegedly being “behind the riots,” according to live footage broadcast on state television.