Gunmen attack holy Muslim shrine in Iran as protesters mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini's death

Gunmen attacked a major Shiaholy site in Iran on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The attack came as protesters elsewhere in Iran marked a symbolic 40 days since a woman's death in custody ignited the biggest anti-government movement in over a decade.

President Ebrahim Raisi vowed that the shooting by suspected Sunni Muslim militants would not go unanswered.

The killing of Shiapilgrims praying at the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz increased tensions in a country reeling from weeks of protests sparked by the killing in custody of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Security forces clashed with protesters marking 40 days since the 22-year-old's death.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said many people had been injured in the Shiraz incident and the death toll could rise further. He blamed the protests sweeping Iran for paving the ground for such "terrorist attacks."

An Iranian news website considered to be close to the Supreme National Security Council reported that the attackers were foreign nationals, without elaborating.

The Islamic State group late Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack on its Amaq news agency. It said an armed militant stormed the shrine and opened fire on its visitors. It claimed that some 20 people were killed and dozens more were wounded.

Iran will respond to the shrine attack, Raisi said, according to state media.

"Experience shows that Iran's enemies, after failing to create a split in the nation's united ranks, take revenge through violence and terror. This crime will definitely not go unanswered, and the security and law enforcement forces will teach a lesson to those who designed and carried out the attack," Raisi said.

Thousands honour Amini

Earlier, thousands of protesters poured into the streets of a northwestern Iranian city on Wednesday to mark the 40 days since Amini's death, which has sparked Iran's biggest anti-government movement in more than a decade.

In ShiaIslam as in many other traditions deaths are commemorated again 40 days later, typically with an outpouring of grief. In Amini's Kurdish hometown of Saqez, the birthplace of the nationwide unrest now roiling Iran, crowds snaked through the local cemetery and thronged her grave.

"Death to the dictator!" protesters cried, according to video footage that corresponds with known features of the city and Aichi Cemetery.

Women ripped off their headscarves, or hijabs, and waved them above their heads. Other videos showed a massive procession making its way along a highway and through a dusty field toward Amini's grave. There were reports of road closures in the area.

Kurdistan Gov. Esmail Zarei Koosha insisted that traffic was flowing as normal.

"The situation in the province is completely stable," he said.

State-run media announced that schools and universities in Iran's northwestern region would close, purportedly to curb "the spread of influenza."

WATCH | Marching to honourMahsa Amini:

Thousands march to Mahsa Amini's grave

2 years ago

Duration 0:27

Marking 40 days since the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death in police custody, thousands of people in cars, on bikes and on foot made their way towards her burial site.

Anti-riot bullets fired

In downtown Tehran, the country's capital, major sections of the traditional grand bazaar closed in solidarity with the protests. Crowds clapped and shouted, "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" through the labyrinthine marketplace.

"This year is a year of blood!" they also chanted. "[Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] will be toppled!"

Riot police on motorbikes were out in force. A large group of men and women marched through the streets, setting trash cans ablaze and shouting"Death to the dictator!" as cars honked their support.

Police unleashed anti-riot bullets at protesters in the streets and sprayed pellets upward at journalists filming from windows and rooftops. Anti-government chants also echoed from the University of Tehran campus.

Amini, detained for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women, remains the potent symbol of protests that have posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic.

With the slogan #WomanLifeFreedom, the demonstrations first focused on women's rights and the state-mandated hijab for women. But they quickly evolved into calls to oust the Shiaclerics that have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests have also galvanized university students, labour unions, prisoners and ethnic minorities like the Kurds along Iran's border with Iraq.

Thousands estimated detained

Since the protests erupted last month, security forces have fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrations, killing more than 200 people, according to human rights groups.

Untold numbers have been arrested, with estimates in the thousands. Iranian judicial officials announced this week they would bring more than600 people to trial over their role in the protests, including 315 in Tehran, 201 in the neighbouring Alborz province and 105 in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi told the state-run IRNA news agency that four protesters were charged with "war against God," which is punishable by death in Iran.

Iranian officials have blamed the protests on foreign interference, without offering evidence.

Last week, Iran imposed sanctions on more than a dozen European officials, companies and institutions, including foreign-based Farsi channels that have extensively covered the protests, accusing them of "supporting terrorism." The sanctions involve an entry and visa ban for the staffers, in addition to the confiscation of their assets in Iran.

Deutsche Welle, the German public broadcaster whose Farsi team was blacklisted, condemned the move on Wednesday as "unacceptable."

"I expect politicians in Germany and Europe to increase the pressure on the regime," DW director general Peter Limbourgsaid.