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AFP
Ahvaz, Iran
Tens of thousands of mourners attended a funeral on Monday in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz for soldiers and civilians killed in an attack on a military parade.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attackers were"funded by"Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in his latest remarks after having already blamed"American lackeys"for the assault.
Four militants attacked the Saturday parade commemorating the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, spraying the crowd with gunfire and killing 24 people.
Iranian officials blamed Arab separatists, backed by Gulf Arab allies of the US, for the attack.
Reporters on Monday saw members of the public and the military carrying coffins draped in the Iranian flag, some bearing pictures of those slain.
The mourners, mostly wearing black, also carried pictures of the dead along with banners reading"we will stand to the end"and"no to terrorism".
The heat became so intolerable that trucks sprayed water onto the crowd as temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius (105 fahrenheit).
Mourners waved red, green and black flags with revolutionary messages, as well as the flags of Arab tribes from the surrounding Khuzestan region.
Khamenei said those behind the"terrorist attack"were funded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"Based on reports, this cowardly act was the work of those very individuals who are rescued by the Americans whenever they are in trouble in Iraq and Syria and who are funded by the Saudis and the (United) Arab Emirates,"he said in remarks posted on his website.
He did not give any further details on their identity.
None of Khuzestan's Arab separatist groups are known to have a presence in Syria.
