Iran says it killed ‘mastermind’ behind military parade attack

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday that it had killed Abu Zaha, the alleged “mastermind” behind an attack on a military parade last month.

The Guard said they killed Zaha and four other people in Iraq, in a statement released through Iranian state media, according to Reuters. One state news outlet claimed Zaha belonged to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Reuters reports. 

{mosads}At least 25 people died and 60 were injured when four gunmen fired on the Iranian military parade in September. Half of those killed were members of the Guard.

Iranian state television reported at the time that the four gunmen were killed.

Shortly after the attack, Iran claimed the gunmen were sent from the CIA and Israel’s Mossad Intelligence agency.

“They are not from Daesh [the Islamic State] or other groups fighting [Iran’s] Islamic system … but they are linked to America and Mossad,” a brigadier general said.

The Revolutionary Guard threatened the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

“You have seen our revenge before,” Revolutionary Guard acting commander Gen. Hossein Salami said. “You will see that our response will be crushing and devastating and you will regret what you have done.”

The U.S. dismissed the allegations at the time, pointing to the domestic unrest in Iran.

“I think the Iranian people have had enough, and that’s where all of this is coming from,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said. “[Iranian President Rouhani] can blame us all he wants, but the thing he’s got to do is look in the mirror.”