Revolutionary Guard members carry a wounded comrade after a shooting during a parade in Ahvaz, Iran, on Sept. 22.  (Photo: Shayan Haji Najafi/ISNA via AP)

Militants shot dead at least 29 people including women and children in an attack Saturday on an Iranian military parade claimed by the Islamic State group, as Tehran accused a US ally in the region of the assault.

Iran's foreign minister blamed regional countries and their “US masters” for the attack. Mohammad Javad Zarif on Twitter also warned that “Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives” after the attack in Ahvaz.

A member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards carries away a child wounded in a shooting rampage at a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. (Photo: AFP)

Zarif said that children and journalists were casualties in the attack.

He added that the gunmen were “terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime.”

Screenshot shows the comment on Saturday's parade attack by Iranian foreign minister via his official twitter account. (People's Daily app) 

He did not immediately elaborate. However, Arab separatist groups in the region have launched attacks on oil pipelines there.

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.

State TV earlier described the gunmen as “Takfiri gunmen,” a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group.

Ahvaz is the capital of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, which has seen attacks on oil pipelines by Arab separatists.