ISIS attacks in Tehran
Fox News reports that ISIS is claiming responsibility for a suicide attack on the Iranian Parliament early this morning. All four attackers were killed along with about 12 of their victims and dozens more were injured;
In a rare and stunning move, ISIS released video from inside the parliament building while the attack was under way. The video, circulated online, shows a gunman and a bloody, lifeless body of a man lying on the ground next to a desk. A voice on the video praises God and says in Arabic: “Do you think we will leave? We will remain, God willing.” Another voice repeats the same words. The two appeared to be parroting a slogan used by IS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, who was killed in Syria last year.
The parliament assault ended Wednesday morning with all four attackers there being killed.
One of the terrorists blew himself up inside the parliament building, where a session had been in progress, according to a statement carried by Iran state TV. It quoted lawmaker Elias Hazrati as saying the attackers were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
I guess it’s an illustration of the old saw about living and dying by the sword.
Another coordinated attack happened at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini where another gunman was killed along with a security guard and several other victims were injured.
Of course, Iran is being targeted by ISIS because of Persian support for Syria’s president Assad and the support for the forces arrayed against ISIS in the Levant.
Category: Terror War
Ermagerd! I did wonder when it was going to happen.
Huh…looks like that chicken came home to roost in a big way.
Now if they’ll just escalate this against each other…
Sounds like the problem taking care of itself to me.
Pass the popcorn….this’ll be fun to watch.
My Orville Redenbacher stock is looking better and better.
Like Christmas/a birthday/Fourth of July/finalization of divorce all wrapped together, smothered in a wake up beejer.
Not left with a little bit of guilt for wishing those goat molesters success on their mission. I will go purge that sin at the gym while grunting ‘America’.
I hope I made the right move buying oil stocks this week…
After all the casualties Iran inflicted on U.S forces in Iraq through their Qods force and Iraqi Shia Special Groups, glad to see it coming back their way…
Karma is a mofo… and it looks like it bit the Iranians in the ass real hard.
Lutherans at it again.
Nope, the Amish. They’re evil fuckers hiding in plain sight in the US.
j/k
Those Angry Amish…
Slightly out of context but in the words of Henry Kissinger (commenting on Iran-Iraq war, 1980 – 1988)— “It’s a pity both sides can’t lose”.
So, strategically speaking, if we have two enemies fighting each other, is it better to
a) snipe at them separately, or
b) take the bigger threat out then focus on the lesser, or
c) just let them bleed each other as much as they want to with minimal interference from us?
What happens when two big waves smash into each other? Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll just wipe each other out.
c), it expends less energy
Pick c and lay in an ample supply of popcorn.
I’d still go with (b). (Which is pretty much how we did it in WWII, though too many of our leaders did not recognize the Soviets as a true enemy.) That way we have more influence on what the post-war world looks like.
Killing ISIS now is kind of like killing the Bolshevik regime in 1917-21…future generations would never dream of how much they’d have to thank us for.
I had that historical factoid in the back of my mind when I put that option on the table.
The best strategy is the one that leaves the US stronger and allows us to influence (hopefully for the good) the governments in the middle of the current kerfuffle over there.
At this point lets look at the history of the Mayans. They fight a big war, win but are significantly weakened. Then a bigger more advanced people come and take you out.
That’s how Iran itself became Islamic.
(Except for the “more advanced” part.)
Well, if the Romans (under Crassus, who made many mistakes) had been able to defeat the Parthian army, would the Middle East be what it is today? I’ve wondered about that for a long time.
Hard to say on counterfactuals like that. However Western Civilization only exists because the Greeks did (finally) beat Darius the Great, and Alexander the Great was able to spread Greek culture over a broad swath of the known world.
Another little bit of historical trivia: Herod the Great was able, through his connections in the Roman Senate, to get Judaism recognized as an acceptable religion in the Roman Empire, empowering the Jews to build synagogues in any Roman city or province.
This provided widespread dissemination of Jewish religious thought, and set the stage for later Christian missionary efforts (Christianity being considered a sect of Judaism.) Without Herod the Great’s influence and actions, the other major component of Western Civilization – a Judeo-Christian worldview – would, arguably, not have been established, and Western Civilization as we know it would not exist.
Daesh has been slaughtering people trying to leave Mosul. The count is 163 now, just executed and left lying in the street. This is NOT religion. It is massacre.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3738775/isis-fanatics-slaughter-163-innocent-people-who-were-trying-to-escape-to-safety-from-mosul/
No. It’s islam.
Go read up of the life and times of mad mo.
He slaughtered 800 jews in a single day. When not raping his 9 year old wife.
The people of Mosul aren’t Jews. That’s not a good comparison. They are caught in the middle of this.
The ISers are specifically targeting children now. That has nothing to do with religion, but everything about it has to do with mass murder using islam as the excuse for it.
Not a good comparision? The founder of Islam and the “perfect muslim” was a mass murderer. On MANY OCCASIONS. And specifically called for the mass killing of infidels, to include children.
He used religion as an excuse to be a mass murderer. Pol Pot, Mao, Hitler and Stalin ALL used ideology as an excuse to commit mass murder. It was less about the ideology itself than it was about killing people.
Can ideology become a religion?
Is there a difference between “ideology” and “religion”?
I’m not sure but what they are different sides of the same dodecahedron.
One can make a good argument that support for Soviet-style “Marxism-Leninism” in effect became the “official religion” in the former USSR.
Agreed. I think the social justice movement has become it’s own religion.
You got that straight!
ISIS and their predecessor AQAP under Zarqawi has used attacks against Shia targets to great success over the years.
Remember, ISIS and Al Qaeda are Salafist / Wahabist Sunni organizations. Iran, of course is Shia (and Persian, not Arab).
If you look at ISIS and AQAPs attacks over the years you will see that the vast majority are against Shia shrines, mosques, and ceremonies. Only the Shia (and some Sufists) have these things.
This is because Salafists and Wahabists believe that having shrines, saints, holy places and ceremonies celebrating them are shirk (polytheism) and even takfir (a muslim rejecting Islam for another faith), which is a major sin, and punishable by death according to the fatwahs of Zawahiri and ISIS.
So, while this is a minor act of terrorism as those things go, hardcore Sunnis will essentially condone the attack because it was against takfiri Shias. Of course, the Shia in Iraq and Syria will be outraged, and Iran will retaliate, which will build support for ISIS from Sunni and Arab nations in the region.
On the heels of what’s going on with Qatar, this is some pretty big news
Would you suggest we just get out of their way?
That’s a tough question. I think Iran can take care of itself. However, at it’s heart, this is all a centuries old Sunni-Shia fight that will go on for a few more centuries or until they have their WW2 (they already had their WW1, AKA the Iran/Iraq War)
Most of the Iraqi Soldiers actually fighting ISIS (and the only ones doing it effectively) are the Iraqi SOF (look up the Golden Brigade). Those guys are Shia. Full disclosure: I’m biased, because I had a small part in training them.
However, the Shia militias that are making life miserable for ISIS are trained and equipped by Iran through the Quds force.
While we all love to hate Iran, there are a lot of nuances here that we just seem to skip over. Read this article with an open mind: https://warisboring.com/americas-iran-hysteria/
I dealt with Iranian EFPs (a particularly nasty form of IED) and rockets myself, so I am no big fan. However, they are a relatively stable government and the people actually kind of like America.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s main form of counter terrorism is to export it- they send their Angry Young Men elsewhere…
That’s a really interesting comment, reddevil. I guess I wonder how the Iranians became so advanced as to make the IED you describe. Oh, wait, at the end of the Cold War (absolutely job-killing for many American defense industry engineers; that is my background, also) what happened to all those Soviet scientists and engineers that we were up against? They had a huge technical population, as we did. I don’t know, but suspect, that many went to Iran and “improved” products there.
EFP or explosive formed projectile/penetrator is a wicked weapon. Turning a copper shape charge into a armor penetrating copper dart. They have been around in various forms for years but like everything else technology touches its lethality has been taken to extremes.
Wow. Thank you for the info, Tony180A.
Sorry but this is not related to reddevil’s comment, as much as to my own: …Look, ballistic missile defense was a high priority of the Cold War. When the Soviets were defeated, engineers still had knowledge and what the he** happened to them? The question bears thought, in my opinion.
Bg2 I think you are bringing up some good points. Years ago ran into some individuals in Dushanbe, Tajikistan who used to live pretty good in the Soviet heyday developing and maintaining some of thier critical weapons systems. When we made contact the good times were long gone. Some of them were literally being paid with cabbage and small rations of goat and mutton. No surprise they slowly disappeared. I’m sure taking their skillsets and finding work at the highest bidder. Hey Capitalism, you gotta love it.
Good post Reddevil. The Saudis pointing a finger at Qatar for supporting terrorism is laughable. Saudi medrasahs are wahhabi breeding grounds!
In my best “Rev” Jeremiah Wright voice:
Iran’s chickens. . . . Have come home. . . . To ROOST!!!
NO, NO, NO! Not Allah bless Iran. . . ALLAH DAMN IRAN!!!
Let them off each other while we enjoy some beer, nachos, pretzels and popcorn!
Grilled Bratwurst, anyone?
Double pork brats with a side of scantily clad women, a hot tub, and some Bitburgers?
Freedom me in.
Off each other, I agree! And watch, with snacks and drinks!
Grilled pork chops and ribs as well and YES, Bacon Cheeseburgers!!! 😀
OH, and that’s charcoal-grilled Bratwurst, I DON’T use lighter fluid for ignition, I use some crumpled newspaper and wood kindling soaked with bacon grease that’s ignited via a propane torch.
I LOL’d the PressTV account. All the commenters are blaming Israel and the US for the attack for establishing and supporting ISIS. At least they stay on message.
They are kind of like the Climate Change people. No matter what happens in the environment if it is bad it is due to climate change.