Iran protests - latest: Supreme leader vows to retaliate after pilgrims massacre

Iran’s supreme leader has vowed to retaliate after a massacre of Shi’ite pilgrims, an attack claimed by Islamic State that threatens to inflame tensions amid widespread anti-government protests.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the assailants “will surely be punished” and called on Iranians to unite.

“We all have a duty to deal with the enemy and its traitorous or ignorant agents,” he said, a day after the attack killed 15 people.

Khamenei’s call for unity appeared to be directed at mostly government loyalists and not protesters, whose nearly-six-week-old movement is seen by authorities as a threat to national security.

Iran’s clerical rulers have faced nationwide demonstrations since the death last month in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman.

Iranians have called for the death of Khamenei and an end to the Islamic Republic during the protests, which have become one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution, drawing many Iranians on to the streets.

Key Points

• Killers will be punished, vows supreme leader

• Supreme leader and president link protests to murders

• German ambassador summoned over ‘interference'

Iranian ex-president defends right to protest

15:40 , Jane Dalton

A former Iranian president has warned that “violence cannot be answered with violence”, as he defended people’s right to demonstrate.

Mohammad Khatami’s name and image have been banned in Iranian media since 2015 over his reformist political views, which call for changing the Islamic Republic from within.

“If (the people) see that the conditions of this life are not provided (by the government), they have the right to criticise and even protest,” Mr Khatami said.

‘This is a revolution’: Protests mark 40 days since death

15:25 , Jane Dalton

In case you missed it:

Tens of thousands of Iranians across the country defied phalanxes of security forces to march and protest against the clerical regime on Wednesday, the religiously potent and politically symbolic 40th day since the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police, writes Borzou Daragahi:

‘This is a revolution’: 40 days after Mahsa Amini’s death, protests erupt across Iran

German ambassador summoned over ‘interference'

15:19 , Jane Dalton

Iran has summoned Germany’s ambassador, accusing Berlin of interfering in the Islamic Republic’s internal affairs.

“Some European countries, contrary to their international commitments in fighting terrorism, have become sponsors of terrorist groups,” said Iran‘s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Bagheri Kani, in comments reported by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Killers will be punished, says Khamenei

15:18 , Jane Dalton

Iran’s supreme leader has said the killers at a mosque gun attack “will surely be punished”.

In a statement read on state TV, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “We all have a duty to deal with the enemy and its traitorous or ignorant agents.”

Khamenei’s call for unity appeared to be directed at mostly government loyalists and not protesters whose nearly six-week-old movement is seen by authorities as a threat to national security.

Iranian protesters have called for the death of Khamenei.

Islamic State admitted it had killed 15 worshippers. The attack was at Shiraz’s Shah Cheragh mosque, the second-holiest site in Iran.

Gunman seen in video

15:09 , Jane Dalton

Footage released by Iranian authorities shows a gunman with a large backpack, walking near the mosque where 15 people were killed, then later moving inside with a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle.

Barefoot worshippers inside try to flee as the man opens fire, then hunts those hiding behind whatever they could find. Blood could be seen on the mosque’s floor.

Riot police later captured the man, whom authorities have yet to identify.

The Islamic State group said it carried out the attack, saying an armed IS militant stormed the shrine and opened fire on visitors.

Supreme leader and president link protests to deadly gun attack

15:04 , Jane Dalton

Iran‘s supreme leader and its president have tried to link nationwide protests to an Islamic State-claimed gun attack on a mosque in which 15 people were killed.

Iran‘s theocracy has been unable to contain the demonstrations, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her detention by the country’s morality police.

More than 200 people have been killed amid a crackdown in Iran, with thousands others arrested by police, activists say.

On Wednesday, a gunman opened fire on worshippers at Shiraz’s Shah Cheragh mosque, the second-holiest site in Iran.

State media said at least 15 people had been killed in the assault, which authorities initially attributed to multiple gunmen.

President Ebrahim Raisi described the ongoing protests as “riots” that allowed for the shooting.

Mr Khamenei blamed the attack on a “plot of the enemies”.

“We all have duties to deal a blow to the warmongering enemy and its treacherous and foolish cohorts,” he reportedly said.

“All our people ranging from the security bodies and the judiciary body and activists in the field of media must be united against the wave that disregards and disrespects people’s lives, their security and their sacred things.”