ISIS gunmen kill 15, wound dozens in Iran

The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack late Wednesday. Its Amaq news agency said the group’s gunmen stormed into the Shah Cheragh mosque in Shiraz, the second holiest site in Iran, and opened fire on visitors, killing about 15 people. Iranian state TV said that the gunmen wounded 40 people.

Are these sorts of attacks common? They are quite rare, although Sunni Muslim extremists have targeted the country’s Shiite majority in the past. Last April, an assailant stabbed two clerics to death at the Imam Reza shrine, the country's most revered Shiite site, in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The attack appeared unrelated to the protests against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in police custody 40 days ago.

Dig deeper: Read A.S. Ibrahim’s column for WORLD Opinions about the thinking behind Islamic extremism.