A spokesman for an Arab separatist group in Iran says members of his organization carried out an attack on an Iranian military parade that killed 25 people and wounded 53.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, told The Associated Press his group wants that area of southwest Iran to be its own nation.

He described his group as leading an umbrella organization for other Ahvaz groups, which includes the militants who carried out Saturday’s attack in Ahvaz.

Al-Tostari said the attack undermined the Iranian government “on the day it wants to give a message to the world that it is powerful and in control.”

He dismissed a claim by the Islamic State group for the attack. The IS claim initially incorrectly said the attack targeted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani was in Tehran giving a speech.

Hours after the attack, Iranian officials have increasingly said they suspect Ahvazi separatists for the attack.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “terrorist” attack on a military parade in Iran’s southwest that killed 24 people and wounded dozens.

In a statement quoting a Foreign Ministry official, the Syrian government said Saturday it condemns in the “strongest terms” the attack on the military parade in Ahvaz. The statement said those sponsoring “terrorism in the region won’t be able to achieve their plots using these sordid crimes.”

Syria is a major ally of Iran, benefiting from generous military and financial aid from Tehran to fight the seven-year-old armed rebellion against the Syrian government.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says 24 people are dead and 53 wounded in an attack on a military parade in the country’s oil-rich southwest.

The agency cited “knowledgeable sources” without elaborating. It said gunmen were dressed in Guard uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting.

The attack left at least eight members of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard dead and 20 others wounded, local media reported.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault in Ahvaz, which saw gunfire spray into a crowd of marching Guardsmen, bystanders and government officials watching from a nearby riser

AP