At a ceremony held in Iran on Wednesday to honor commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020, two explosions claimed approximately 100 lives and several injuries. Iranian officials blamed unknown “terrorists” for the deaths.
At a ceremony held in Iran on Wednesday to honor commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020, two explosions claimed approximately 100 lives and several injuries. Iranian officials blamed unknown “terrorists” for the deaths.
During a packed fourth-anniversary event at the cemetery where Soleimani is buried in the southeast city of Kerman, Iranian official media first reported a first explosion and then, after 20 minutes, a second one.
Nobody accepted accountability for the explosions. According to a senior official in the Biden administration in Washington, the attacks seemed to be a “terrorist act” akin to earlier ones carried out by terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State.
The “shameful and inhumane crime” was denounced by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and Ayatollah Khamenei pledged to exact punishment for the two deadly attacks.
According to state media, Khamenei declared in a statement, “Cruel criminals… must know that they will be strongly dealt with from now on, and undoubtedly there will be a harsh response.”
The UN Secretary-General demanded that those responsible for the attacks be held accountable, and several nations, including Turkey and Russia, denounced the attacks.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has previously seen similar attacks from a variety of groups, including Islamic State, reported that this attack was the bloodiest in its history with 211 people injured and 95 deaths, down from 103, according to Iranian Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi, speaking to state TV.
Although Israel has neither confirmed nor rejected the accusations, Iran has previously held Israel accountable for assaults on specific individuals or locations inside its borders. However, there was no proof that a foreign power was involved in the cemetery bombings.
National security spokesman for the White House John Kirby stated that there has been no evidence that Israel was responsible for the explosions.
According to an anonymous official, “two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman’s Martyrs’ Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists.”
THOUSANDS OF BLOODIE BODY SHOWS IN VIDEOS
Iranian state TV broadcast footage of dozens of bloodied dead sprawled about, with some witnesses attempting to assist survivors and others running to flee the bomb zone.
“I heard a very loud sound and then felt pain in my back… then I couldn’t feel my legs,” an injured woman told state television from a Kerman hospital.
At the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to honor the anniversary of Soleimani’s death, Red Crescent rescuers attended to the injured. According to certain Iranian news outlets, the number of injured was substantially greater.
“In spite of all the safety precautions and security measures, a tremendous boom was heard there. Reza Fallah, the head of the Kerman Red Crescent Society, told state media that the situation is still being looked into.
The cemetery has been evacuated and closed indefinitely, according to a later statement from the state press agency. Thursday was designated as a day of mourning by the government.
Top commander of Iran’s Quds force Esmail Qaani said that “the agents of the Zionist regime (Israel) and the United States” were behind the strikes, despite the authorities refusing to openly assign blame.
Tehran frequently charges that the US and Israel, its two greatest adversaries, are funding violent organizations opposed to Iran.
“Death to Israel” and “Death to America” were being chanted by throngs gathering around the cemetery at night, according to State TV.
According to U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the United States was not and has no reason to believe Israel was engaged in the explosives. This was stated during a routine news briefing.
Iran’s foreign ministry declared in a statement that it will seek to identify and prosecute those responsible for the assaults and those who supported them using all available international channels. President Raisi, meanwhile, canceled her scheduled trip to Turkey on Thursday.
PRIOR ATTACKS
The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim militant organization, took credit for a fatal attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran in 2022 that left fifteen people dead.
Previous assaults attributed to the group include the lethal twin explosions that took place in 2017 and targeted the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and Iran’s parliament. Attacks have also been staged in Iran by ethnic Arab separatists and Baluchi terrorists.
The United States and Iran were on the verge of a full-scale conflict when the U.S. killed Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020, and Tehran retaliated by assaulting two Iraqi military posts that are home to American forces.
Soleimani oversaw covert operations overseas as the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) elite Quds force, and he played a significant role in the country’s protracted effort to expel American forces from the Middle East.
Israel’s war on Hamas terrorists in Gaza, which it launched in retribution for their October 7th rampage through southern Israel, has escalated tensions between Iran and Israel as well as with the US, its backer.
In the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the busiest maritime channels in the world, the Houthi militia of Yemen, backed by Iran, has attacked ships that they claim have connections to Israel.
Because Washington supports Israel, U.S. forces have been attacked by extremists backed by Iran in Iraq and Syria. In response, the U.S. military has launched retaliatory bombings.