Iran arrests military member 'in connection with Ahvaz attack'

Iran has arrested members of its military in connection with an attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz last month which killed dozens of people, according to local media.

"Eleven people were summoned and one was arrested, all of whom were military, and the case has been sent to Tehran," Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, spokesman for the judiciary, was cited as saying by semi-official Fars News agency.

Four militants attacked a military parade in the city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border on last month, killing at least 25 people.

It was the deadliest such attack in Iran in nearly a decade.

A news agency close to the Guard said at least eight of its members were killed in the attack.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pointed blame for the deadly attack at Arab separatists and accused an unnamed US-backed Gulf state of supporting them.

Officials and an eyewitness said the gunmen were clad in Iranian military uniforms and had sprayed the crowd with gunfire using weapons they had stashed in a nearby park.

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the rare assault.

But Iranian authorities see an Arab separatist movement, the Ahwazi Democratic Popular Front (ADPF) or Al-Ahwazi, as the main suspect.

"One of the countries in the south of the Persian Gulf took care of their financial, weaponry and political needs," Rouhani said.

"All these little mercenary countries we see in this region are backed by America. It is the Americans who incite them."