Khuzestan Intelligence: Shooting in Dezful was Directed by a Foreign Country

The General Directorate of Intelligence of Khuzestan Province announced on Tuesday, October 25, the arrest of "all the perpetrators of the shooting incident" at a Hosseiniyah in Safiabad, Dezful, stating that this "incident was organized and directed by a foreign country." According to ISNA news agency, the members of "this terrorist group" intended to repeat similar operations "in four other locations," but were arrested "before any operation could take place." The General Directorate of Intelligence did not provide further details about the identities of the arrested individuals. Iranian officials have previously accused unnamed Gulf Arab countries of supporting the perpetrators of some explosions and armed attacks against law enforcement officers in Khuzestan Province, including the assassination of three police officers in Hamidiyeh in Farvardin. On the evening of Friday, October 14, two people were killed and two others were injured in a shooting at a mourning ceremony in Safiabad, Dezful. Rahman Mousavi, the social deputy of the Khuzestan police command, reported on Sunday, October 16, the arrest of several individuals in connection with this incident but did not provide further details about the arrested individuals and their connection to the actual shooters. Ahmad Ghahramani, the prosecutor of Dezful, referred to this incident as a "security incident," while Sadegh Abouhalal, the head of the judiciary in this city, stated that the perpetrators of this shooting had connections with "foreign enemies." A few days after this incident, another citizen was shot dead in the village of Islamabad, Dezful, but it is unclear whether there is a connection between the two events. Safiabad is a district of Dezful, located 15 kilometers from the central part of Dezful and situated between Shush and Dezful. A few days after the Dezful incident, on Ashura, a shooting at a mourning ceremony in Behbahan resulted in seven injuries. Regarding the recent incident, Fazl Mohammadpour, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Behbahan, stated that this incident is neither "tribal" nor "terroristic," but due to the "full preparedness" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and law enforcement to potentially confront ISIS, the shooters were arrested "in less than 15 minutes." However, Hossein Malekkhodaei, the governor of Behbahan, while rejecting the characterization of this incident as "terroristic," described it as a "conflict" between "two mourning groups" due to "ethnic differences."