Iran blast: At least 84 killed in blasts at Soleimani ceremony

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two bombs detonated in a 2020 drone strike commemorating a prominent Iranian general killed by the United States killed at least 84 people, Iranian officials said, as the Middle East remains under threat. Is. Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza,

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the deadliest terrorist attack targeting Iran since 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran’s leaders vowed to punish those responsible for the blasts, which injured at least 284 people.

The explosions, which occurred minutes apart on Wednesday, shook the city of Kerman, located about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran. In the second blast, shrapnel fell on the screaming crowd fleeing from the first blast.

Health officials said officials realized that some names were repeated in the list of victims and that the earlier death toll of 103 was revised twice due to the severity of wounds suffered by some of the deceased. However, many of the injured are in critical condition, so the death toll may rise.

The gathering marked the fourth anniversary of the killing of General Qasim Suleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, in a US drone strike in Iraq. The blast took place near his grave when long queues of people had gathered for the programme.

Iranian state television and officials described the attacks as bombings, without immediately providing clear details of what happened. The attacks came a day after the attack on the deputy chief of Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. A suspect killed in Israeli attack in Beirut,

Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state television that the first bomb was detonated around 3 p.m. on Wednesday and the second went off about 20 minutes later. He said most people were killed and injured in the second blast.

Images and videos shared on social media appear to match accounts from officials, who said the first explosion occurred about 700 meters (765 yards) from Soleimani’s grave at the Kerman Martyrs’ Cemetery near a parking lot. The crowd then moved west towards Shohada Street, where a second explosion occurred about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) from the grave.

Terrorists often use a delayed second explosion to cause more casualties by targeting emergency personnel responding to an attack.

Iranian state TV and the state-run IRNA news agency quoted emergency officials as providing information on the number of casualties. Officials said Thursday would be a national day of mourning.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the attackers would face a “strong response”, although he did not name any possible suspects. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said: “Undoubtedly, the perpetrators and leaders of this cowardly act will soon be identified and punished.”

Iran has many enemies who could be behind this attack, including exile groups, militant organizations, and state actors.

While Israel has carried out attacks on Iran over its nuclear program, it has carried out targeted killings, not large-scale bombings. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said US officials had “no reason” to believe Israel was involved in Wednesday’s attack in Iran. This was echoed at the White House by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who said, “Our thoughts are with all of the innocent victims and their family members.”

Sunni extremist groups, including the Islamic State group, have in the past carried out large-scale attacks that killed civilians in Shia-majority Iran, although not in relatively peaceful Kerman.

Iran has also seen large-scale protests in recent years, including the death of a 22-year-old mahsa amini In 2022. The country has also been targeted by exile groups in attacks during the period of turmoil surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran itself has been arming militant groups for decades, including Hamas, the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. As Israel wages a devastating war in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attacks killed 1,200 people, both Hezbollah and the Houthis have launched attacks targeting Israel that they say are coming from the Palestinians. Have been.

Israel is suspected of carrying out an attack on Tuesday that killed a Hamas deputy chief in beirut, but that attack caused limited casualties in a densely populated area of ​​the Lebanese capital. There was a suspected Israeli attack last week A Revolutionary Guard commander killed in Syria,

A Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdel-Salaam, sought to link the bombings to Iran’s “support for resistance forces in Palestine and Lebanon”, although he did not blame anyone specifically for the attack. Some Iranian officials also hinted at Israeli and American involvement without presenting evidence, which is common after terrorist attacks.

In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called those killed in the attacks “martyrs who died in the same road, cause and fight that Soleimani led.”

The government of neighboring Iraq expressed condolences to the victims, and the European Union issued a statement offering “its solidarity with the Iranian people”. Even Saudi Arabia, a longtime regional rival Last year, tensions between the two countries with Iran endedexpressed his sympathy.

Soleimani was and is the architect of Iran’s regional military activities. Honored as a national symbol Among supporters of Iran’s theocracy. They also helped secure the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad when the Arab Spring protests against him in 2011 escalated into a civil and later a regional war, which continues to this day.

Soleimani was relatively unknown in Iran until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. His popularity and mystique increased when US officials called for his assassination for his help in arming terrorists with roadside bombs, which killed and maimed US soldiers.

A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognizable battlefield commander. He ignored calls to enter politics, but became as powerful, if not more so, than the civilian leadership.

Ultimately, the general was killed in a drone strike launched by the Trump administration, part of an escalating incident following the US’s 2018 unilateral withdrawal from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

There have been large processions in the past on Soleimani’s death. At his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out in Kerman and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 injured as thousands flocked to the procession.

Until Wednesday, the deadliest attack on Iran since the revolution was a truck bombing of the Islamic Republican Party headquarters in Tehran in 1981. At least 72 people, including party leaders, four government ministers, eight deputy ministers and 23 members of parliament, were killed in that attack.

Just before the revolution in 1978, hundreds of people died in a deliberately set fire at the Cinema Rex in Abadan.

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Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; Suzanne Fraser in Ankara, Türkiye; Bassem Maroué in Beirut; Jack Jeffery and Emma Burrows in London; And Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.