Iran envoy calls on UN to condemn deadly Daesh pilgrim attack

Saturday, 26 November 2016 10:00 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 26 November 2016 10:03 PM ]

A man reacts as he talks to the media at the scene of a terrorist bomb attack, at a petrol station in the city of Hillah, south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on November 25, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Iran's UN envoy says that recent Daesh terrorist attack in Iraq that claimed the lives of a large number of Iranian pilgrims is a reminder of the heavy responsibility on international community towards battling terrorism.

Gholam-Hossein Dehqani made the remarks in a Saturday letter to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, calling for the condemnation of the deadly attack.

“This terrorist attack, claimed by the Daesh group, is not the first example of such terrorist crimes against Iranian pilgrims as these pilgrims have been the targets of vicious terrorist attacks many times before,” he said.

He went on to stress that the people and government of Iran will spare no efforts to destroy Daesh and other terrorist groups.

About 100 people, most of them Shia Iranian pilgrims, were killed after explosives placed in a truck were set off at a gas station in Shomali village in the suburbs of Hillah, 100 kilometers south of Baghdad, on Thursday.

The pilgrims were en route back to Iran from the holy city of Karbala, where they had attended religious rituals commemorating Arba’een, the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (Peace be upon him), the third Shia Imam.

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack in an online statement.

Iranian Ambassador to the UN Gholam-Hossein Dehqani addresses a UN Security Council session in this undated photo.

“These crimes are in fact a warning to those who have spread the Takfiri ideology and who aid terrorist organizations and are a wake-up call to these countries to stop their support of these killers and join the international community in their fight against extremism,” he added.

Earlier, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei offered his condolences over the large number of deaths in the attack.

The Leader said the criminal and atrocious Takfiri groups carried out a “heinous and cowardly” measure to take revenge after their ominous plots were thwarted and their evil face was once again revealed to all.

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