IS attacks Iran annual army parade; 29 dead

Tehran: Militants shot dead at least 29 people including women and children in an attack on Saturday on an Iranian military parade claimed by the Islamic State group, as Tehran accused a US ally in the region of the assault. The attack in the southwestern city of Ahvaz came as the country marked the anniversary of the start of its 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and prompted President Hassan Rouhani to warn of a "crushing response".

"The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the smallest threat will be crushing", Rouhani said on his official website. "Those who give intelligence and propaganda support to these terrorists must answer for it." Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet that the attack near the Iraqi border was carried out by "terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime".

"Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their US masters accountable for such attacks," he wrote.