Iran turns wrath on US, Saudi Arabia

Tehran yesterday hit out at Washington and Riyadh as tens of thousands attended the funerals for those slain in the first attacks in Iran claimed by the Islamic State group.

The intelligence ministry, meanwhile, said Friday that 41 people suspected of being "agents of Daesh (IS)" had been arrested in the aftermath of Wednesday's attacks.

"Death to America", "Death to the Saud" ruling family, and "We are not afraid", shouted the crowd behind a lorry bearing the coffins of 15 of the 17 people killed.

Burials were held in the provinces for the two others killed when gunmen and suicide bombers stormed Tehran's parliament complex and the shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Fifty people were wounded.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had initially called the attacks "firecrackers" that "will not have the slightest effect on the will of the people".

But yesterday, he turned his wrath over the attacks on the United States and Saudi Arabia, Iran's fiercest rivals.

"Such acts will have no other result than to reinforce hatred for the US government and its agents in the region, like the Saudi (government)," Khamenei wrote in a message of condolence.

At a ceremony held in parliament, attended by newly re-elected moderate President Hassan Rouhani, speaker Ali Larijani also attacked the United States and Saudi Arabia.