By Roy Mabasa
The Philippine government on Sunday said it is monitoring the situation in Iran after gunmen attacked a military parade, killing at least 29 people and wounding 70 others.
A member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards carries away a child wounded in a shooting rampage at a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz that Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif blamed on a US ally in the region (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a report to the Home Office in Manila, Philippine Ambassador to Tehran Wilfredo Santos said they are getting more information on the attack that occurred on Saturday morning in the southern city of Ahraz, some 820 kilometers southwest of the capital near its border with Iraq.
It was earlier reported that the dead and wounded were both military personnel and civilians including a journalist who were watching the parade.
The attackers, wearing military uniforms, began shooting from a long distance targeting the armed forces as well as civilians watching the parade.
Three of the attackers were gunned down during exchanges with Iranian security forces and one other was reportedly in government custody.
The attack happened at a military parade commemorating the 30th anniversary of its eight-year war with Iraq that killed as many as half a million troops.
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict that began on September 22, 1980 and ended on August 20, 1988 through a United Nations-brokered ceasefire.