TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian lawmakers have set a paper U.S. flag ablaze at parliament after President Donald Trump’s nuclear deal pullout, shouting, “Death to America!”

Lawmakers held the impromptu demonstration inside parliament on Wednesday, the day after Trump’s decision. They also burned a piece of paper representing the nuclear deal.

The chant “Death to America” long has been used in Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also has been common to hear it within parliament.

However, Wednesday’s demonstration shows the public anger coursing through Iran after Trump’s decision. </s> Wednesday, just one day after President Trump announced the U.S. would exit the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, Iranian parliament burned a printed paper symbolizing an American flag while yelling “death to America.”

Click here to watch the full video.

The “Death to America” chant has been used in Iran for many years, dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Additionally, the slogan has been a frequent term shouted within parliament.

The protest occurred as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran continued to seek “engagement with the world” and hoped European leaders would continue to “preserve the deal.” but added that the Islamic nation could restart its nuclear program whenever it wanted, according to reports.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized Trump’s decision to withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, calling the U.S President’s comments “silly and superficial.”

Khamenei took it one step further by taking to Twitter to express his thoughts on the U.S. President:

France, Germany and the U.K. along with a majority of U.S. officials oppose President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal while Israel supports the decision noting they’ve been against the deal.

Following the “death to America,” flag burning protest by lawmakers of the Iranian Parliament it is unclear where world leaders now stand on the matter.

The post Iranian lawmakers yell “death to America” while burning US flag appeared first on 850 WFTL. </s> Millions are celebrating the 38th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty.

The celebrations are marked this year by tense relations with the US.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of the capital Tehran on Friday.

Some Iranians denounced US President Donald Trump’s recent statements regarding the Muslim state, while others thanked the United States for supporting Muslims.

On the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the ousting of the former US-backed House of Pahlavi, a flood of protesters headed towards Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square with Iranian flags, celebrating the rule of the current clerical establishment.

Some also carried effigies of Trump, as well as banners reading “Death to America,” the footage showed, to the sound of traditional Iranian revolutionary songs played by police military ensemble.

The crowd included hundreds of military personnel and police officers, Reuters reported citing local TV.

Footage showed people trampling on pictures of Trump in a central Tehran street, where marchers carried banners reading: “Thanks Mr. Trump for showing the real face of America.” The crowd was also seen burning US and Israeli flags. Israel is Washington’s main ally in the region, while Iran has been supporting Palestinians in their dispute with Israel. Chanting out provocative slogans and burning flags are common practices at mass demonstrations in Iran.

However, some Iranians held banners that said “Down with the US regime, Long live US people” and “Americans are welcome to visit Iran,” showing gratitude to the demonstrators who took to the streets of America to protest Trump’s executive order barring entry to the citizens of seven Muslim countries, including Iran. Yesterday, a US Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking enforcement of the ban, but the case will likely continue to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court.

The protest comes after Iran’s most powerful authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Iranians earlier this week to demonstrate against the US to show Iran was not frightened of their “threats.”

“[Trump] says ‘You should be afraid of me.’ No! The Iranian people will respond to his words on February 10 and will show their stance against such threats,” Khamenei said on Tuesday.

Last week Fox News published an interview with Donald Trump, in which he said “they [Iran] have total disregard for our country, they’re the number one terrorist state, they’re sending money all over the place and weapons,” referring to accusations frequently coming from the West that Tehran is supporting various Shiite rebel groups in the Middle East, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen.

Earlier in February, the US also imposed new sanctions on Iran in response to a ballistic missile test, which Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Flynn described as provocative and destabilizes the situation across the Middle East.

The US claimed the test violated UN Security Council Resolution 2231 which called on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles.” Flynn said that the Trump administration “condemns such actions by Iran,” and has “officially put Iran on notice.“

Addressing the crowds on Friday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also called on Iranians to “show their unbreakable ties with the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic.”

“Some inexperienced figures in the region and America are threatening Iran […] They should know that the language of threats has never worked with Iran […] They should learn to respect Iran and Iranians […] We will strongly confront any warmongering policies,” Rouhani told the crowd at the Azadi Square, as cited by Reuters, which reported that millions had shown up to commemorate the occasion across the country. </s> Politicians in the Iranian parliament were filmed burning an American flag and chanting “death to America” on Wednesday in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the 2015 agreement on Tuesday, calling it a “horrible one-sided deal that should never, ever have been made.”

Furious Iranian lawmakers also set fire to a piece of paper representing the nuclear deal, and vowed to increase spending on the country’s ballistic missile program.

“With a national consensus, we will give the U.S. and Zionists a response that they will regret,” said parliament speaker Ali Larijani according to the Mehr news agency.

According to Larijani, Iran could return to its nuclear program, but will hold off at first on withdrawing from the nuclear pact, the Times of Israel reported.

Larijani also called Trump an “egotistical and amateurish politician,” for exiting the deal. “Trump does not have the mental capacity to deal with issues,” he said according to Reuters.

“While U.S. flag-burning is common in Iran and harsh criticism of America has been a staple of Iranian parliamentary politics for years, it was the first time political observers could remember anything being burned inside the parliament itself,” reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

After Trump’s decision, Iranian leaders expressed hope that the European Union will work to preserve the deal.

“Iran hopes the European Union will pass laws to protect European firms from any potential U.S. sanctions. EU officials have suggested they’ll do what they can to salvage the agreement,” The New York Times reported.

“So if necessary, we can begin our industrial enrichment without any limitations,” said Iranian President Hassan Rohani. “Until implementation of this decision, we will wait for some weeks and will talk with our friends and allies and other signatories of the nuclear deal, who signed it and who will remain loyal to it. Everything depends on our national interests.”

Dozens of Iranians also set fire to a U.S. flag during a protest in front of the former U.S. embassy, calling for retaliation.

While the response from the international community was overwhelmingly negative, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel fully supports Trump’s “bold decision to reject the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran.”

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“Israel has opposed the nuclear deal from the start,” he said in a speech Tuesday.

“Because we said that rather than blocking Iran’s path to a bomb, the deal actually paves Iran’s path to an entire arsenal of nuclear bombs, and this within a few years time.”

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below. </s> Iranians on Friday marked the anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution with nationwide celebrations and mass rallies that saw people step on large U.S. flags laid out on the streets while President Hassan Rouhani called the new American administration “a problem.”

This year, the anniversary came against the backdrop of remarks by President Donald Trump, who has already engaged in a war of words with Iran’s leadership and put Tehran “on notice” over its recent ballistic missile test.

At the Tehran rallies Friday, demonstrators chanted traditional slogans against the United States and Israel, and later, hundreds of thousands marched toward the city’s central Azadi Square, where Rouhani addressed the crowds, telling them that Iran will strongly answer any threat from its enemies.

“All of them should know that they must talk to the Iranian nation with respect and dignity,” Rouhani declared. “Our nation will strongly answer to any threat. (Iranians) will resist before enemies until the end.”

Rouhani called Iran the home of “lions” but said the country does not seek hostility. “We are not after tensions in the region and the world. We are united in the face of bullying and any threat.”

Many of the marchers carried the Iranian flag, others had banners and posters with revolutionary slogans. Printed U.S. flags and pictures of current and former U.S. presidents lay scattered on the streets — so they could be trampled by the marchers.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iranian students stormed the American Embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Friday’s rallies commemorated Feb. 11 of that year, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. The United States helped orchestrate the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, which brought Pahlavi to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries.

Some of the posters distributed in English on Friday read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims.”

Another one with a picture of Trump said: “Thanks Mr. Trump ... for revealing the face of the U.S.” — a reference to remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, earlier this week.

Khamenei said on Tuesday that the “newcomer” Trump has shown the “real face” of the United States. He spoke after Trump tweeted — following a ballistic missile test by Iran — that Iranians were “playing with fire,” saying they “don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President (Barack) Obama was to them. Not me!”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers, in which Tehran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, but he has not said what he plans to do about it.

His administration said Iran was “on notice” over the missile test, and imposed new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian companies and individuals.

In Tehran, some of the demonstrators threw balls and darts targeting pictures of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Others burned an American flag. The semi-official ILNA news agency reported that an Israeli flag was also burned.

Many ranking officials attended the ceremony in Tehran, including Gen. Qassem Soleimani who heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, which focuses on foreign operations such as the war in Syria and Iraq’s fight against the Islamic State group where the Shiite power Iran supports Iraq’s government.

Rouhani told reporters prior to addressing the crowds that Iranians will make the U.S. regret using threatening language, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

“Anyone who speaks the language of threat to this nation, the Iranian nation will make him regret” it, he said, without elaborating.

“This presence (of demonstrators) is a response to wrong comments by new leaders in the White House, and they announce with their presence to the world that they (U.S. leaders) should talk with respect and not use threatening language to the Iranian nation,” Rouhani added.

Iranian state television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them held in sub-zero temperatures.

In the central city of Kashan, the official IRNA news agency said the country’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, told reporters that members of the Islamic State group have been arrested near Tehran. “They planned to sabotage” the anniversary rallies, he said.

And Khamenei’s senior adviser, Gen. Rahim Safavi, said during a similar rally in the southern city of Ahvaz that the “evil triangle” or America, Britain and Israel “cannot create a serious military threat against Iran.”

Tehran resident Mohammad Soufi, 33, a medical lab technician, said Trump’s recent stance encouraged him and his wife to participate in the rally this year.

“We did not participate in the rally for more than 10 years,” he said. “This year my wife told me: ‘Let’s go out to show to the world, particularly Trump, that we love our county despite differences’.”

Sorraya Khalili , a 44-year-old hairstylist, said she was out to support the government and object to the “U.S. bullying of Iran.”

“Why people like Trump think they can make decisions for the entire world? Iran is an independent country like the United States,” she added. “I wish Americans get to visit Iran to find out we are similar to them; we warmly welcome our guests and respect them.” </s> Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that an unnamed U.S.-allied country in the Persian Gulf was behind an attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded around 70.

Rouhani did not identify those behind Saturday's attack, which was claimed by an Arab separatist group. He could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain — close U.S. military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.

"All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes," Rouhani said.

Saturday's attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest attack in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out in Ahvaz, the chaos captured live on state television.

The region's Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault, and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim. Iran summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands early Sunday for allegedly harboring "members of the terrorist group" that launched the attack.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later said the UAE ambassador would be summoned over "partial statements" in support of the group behind the attack, without elaborating.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier blamed regional countries and their "U.S. masters" for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

"Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The parade was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran's long 1980s war with Iraq, commemorations known as the "Sacred Defense Week."

The attack killed at least 25 people and wounded around 70, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. At least eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran's supreme leader, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the attack as exposing "the atrocity and viciousness of the enemies of the Iranian nation."

"Their crime is a continuation of the conspiracies by the U.S.-backed regimes in the region which have aimed at creating insecurity in our dear country," Khamenei said in a statement.

Tensions have been on the rise since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year and began restoring sanctions that were eased under the deal. It also has steadily ramped up pressure on Iran to try to get it to stop what Washington calls its "malign activities" in the region.

The U.S. government nevertheless strongly condemned Saturday's attack and expressed its sympathy, saying it "condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of any innocent lives."

Initially, authorities described the assailants as "takfiri gunmen," a term previously used to describe the Daesh group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against IS in Iraq and has aided Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's long civil war.

But later, state media and government officials seemed to come to the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. The separatists accuse Iran's Persian-dominated government of discriminating against its ethnic Arab minority.

Khuzestan province also has seen recent protests over Iran's nationwide drought, as well as economic protests.

Iran has blamed its Mideast archrival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding Arab separatists. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel based in the United Kingdom immediately carried an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday's attack.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's ambassador to the U.K., called the channel's decision a "heinous act" in a post on Twitter and said his country would file a complaint with British authorities over the broadcast. Early Sunday, a Foreign Ministry statement similarly criticized Britain and said Danish and Dutch diplomats were told Iran "already warned" their governments about harboring Arab separatists.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement to Liberate Ahvaz, told The Associated Press that members of an umbrella group of Ahvazi activists his organization leads carried out the attack.

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," al-Tostari said. To bolster his claim, he gave details about one of the attackers that the AP could not immediately verify.

The Daesh group also claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. They also initially wrongly said the attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran at the time. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria.

The Deash group carried out a coordinated assault in June 2017 on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

In the last decade, mass-casualty militant attacks have been incredibly rare. In 2009, more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide attack by extremists in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province. </s> TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians began a nationwide celebration Friday to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the 1979 revolution with rallies around the country.

Demonstrators in Tehran chanted traditional slogans against the U.S. and Israel. The rallies come at a time when new U.S. President Donald Trump has already engaged in a war of words with Iran’s leadership and put Tehran “on notice” over a recent ballistic missile test.

Among other places, hundreds of thousands demonstrators marched toward Azadi Square, where President Hassan Rouhani addressed the crowd. He called the new U.S. administration “a problem” and said Iran will strongly answer any threat from its enemies.

“All of them should know that they must talk to the Iranian nation with respect and dignity,” Rouhani urged the world. “Our nation will strongly answer to any threat. (Iranians) will resist before enemies until the end.”

Rouhani called Iran the home of “lions” but said the country does not seek hostility. “We are not after tensions in the region and the world,” he said. “We are united before bullying and any threat.”

In downtown Tehran on Enghelab street thousands of people marched, some carrying the Iranian flag, some with banners and posters with revolutionary slogans. Printed U.S. flags and pictures of current and former U.S. presidents were flattened on the road and trampled by some of the participants.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iranian students stormed the American Embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The rallies commemorate Feb. 11, 1979, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. The United States helped orchestrate the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, which brought Pahlavi to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries.

Some posters distributed in English read: “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims.” Another one next to a picture of Trump said: “Thanks Mr. Trump … for revealing the face of the U.S.,” a reference to remarks Tuesday by Iran’s supreme leader in which he said the “newcomer” Trump had shown the “real face” of the United States.

Some people threw balls and darts targeting pictures of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some demonstrators burned an American flag.

Many ranking officials attended the ceremony in Tehran, including Qassem Soleimani, a general who heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force that focuses on foreign operations like the war in Syria.

President Rouhani told reporters prior to addressing the crowd that Iranians will make Washington regret the language of threat, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

“Anyone who speaks the language of threat to this nation, the Iranian nation will make him regret” it, he said, without elaborating. “This presence (of demonstrators) is a response to wrong comments by new leaders in the White House, and they announce with their presence to the world that they should talk with respect and not use threatening language to the Iranian nation.”

State television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them in sub-zero temperatures.

Tehran resident Mohammad Soufi, 33 a medical lab technician, said Trump’s recent stance encouraged him and his wife to participate in the rally this year.

“We did not participate in the rally for more than 10 years,” he said. This year my wife told me let’s to go out to show to the world, particularly Trump, that we love our county despite differences.”

Sorraya Khalili , a 44-year-old hairstylist, said she was out to support the government and object to U.S. bullying of Iran.

“Why people like Trump think they can make decision for entire world? Iran is an independent country like the United States. I wish American get able to visit Iran to find out we are similar to them; we warmly welcome our guests and respect them.” </s> Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that an unnamed U.S.-allied country in the Persian Gulf was behind an attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded nearly 70.

Rouhani did not identify those behind Saturday’s attack, which was claimed by an Arab separatist group. He could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain — close U.S. military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.

“All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes,” Rouhani said.

Saturday’s attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest attack in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out, the chaos captured live on state television.

The region’s Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault, and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim. Iran summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands early Sunday for allegedly harboring “members of the terrorist group” that launched the attack.

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The ministry later summoned the envoy of the United Arab Emirates as well over what it called the “irresponsible and insulting statements” of an Emirati adviser, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier blamed regional countries and their “U.S. masters” for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

“Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The parade was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran’s long 1980s war with Iraq, commemorations known as the “Sacred Defense Week.”

The attack killed at least 25 people and wounded nearly 70, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed.

At least eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran’s supreme leader, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The Guard responded to the attack on Sunday, warning it would seek “deadly and unforgiving revenge in the near future.”

Tensions have been on the rise since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year and began restoring sanctions that were eased under the deal. It also has steadily ramped up pressure on Iran to try to get it to stop what Washington calls its “malign activities” in the region.

The U.S. government nevertheless strongly condemned Saturday’s attack and expressed its sympathy, saying it “condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of any innocent lives.”

Initially, authorities described the assailants as “takfiri gunmen,” a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against IS in Iraq and has aided Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s long civil war.

But later, state media and government officials seemed to come to the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. The separatists accuse Iran’s Persian-dominated government of discriminating against its ethnic Arab minority.

Khuzestan province also has seen recent protests over Iran’s nationwide drought, as well as economic protests.

Iran has blamed its Mideast archrival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding Arab separatists. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel based in the United Kingdom immediately carried an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday’s attack.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the U.K., called the channel’s decision a “heinous act” in a post on Twitter and said his country would file a complaint with British authorities over the broadcast. Early Sunday, a Foreign Ministry statement similarly criticized Britain and said Danish and Dutch diplomats were told Iran “already warned” their governments about harboring Arab separatists.

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen condemned the attack and stressed that there would be “consequences” if it turns out that those responsible have connections to Denmark.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement to Liberate Ahvaz, told The Associated Press that members of an umbrella group of Ahvazi activists his organization leads carried out the attack.

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,” al-Tostari said. To bolster his claim, he gave details about one of the attackers that the AP could not immediately verify.

The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. They also initially wrongly said the attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran at the time. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group carried out a coordinated assault in June 2017 on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

In the last decade, mass-casualty militant attacks have been incredibly rare. In 2009, more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide attack by Sunni extremists in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. </s> Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied on February 10 to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

 

 The rallies commemorate February 11, 1979, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted a U.S.-backed monarch, Shah Reza Pahlavi.

State television broadcast footage of large crowds in Tehran and other cities and towns across the country, many of them in freezing temperatures.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital's Azadi Square, chanting slogans against the United States and Israel.

Some carried banners reading "Death to America" and effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump. Images of the U.S. flag, Trump, and former U.S. presidents were trampled underfoot.

Addressing the crowds in Azadi Square, President Hassan Rohani called Trump's administration "a problem" and said Iran will "strongly answer any threat."

"Our nation is vigilant and will make those threatening Iran regret it," Rohani said, adding that Iran is "not after tensions in the region and the world."

The anniversary celebrations came a week after Trump and his administration said they were putting Iran "on notice" over a recent ballistic missile test they said defied a UN resolution.

Trump has also sharply criticized a 2015 deal between world powers and Iran that imposed curbs on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

Other senior officials who attended the march in Tehran included Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and General Qasem Soleimani, who heads the elite Quds unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Tehran and Washington have not had diplomatic relations since supporters of the Islamic Revolution stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in 1979-80.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
After the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a group of conservative Iranian lawmakers burned American flags and chanted Death to America.