More Than 100 Killed in ‘Terrorist Attacks’ Near Iranian Guards Commander Soleimani’s Tomb During Ceremony
A banner of senior Iranian military commander General Qassem Soleimani is seen during a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of his killing in a US attack, in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Two explosions caused by “terrorist attacks” killed more than 100 people and wounded scores at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed by a US drone in 2020, Iranian officials said on Wednesday.
Iranian state television reported a first and then a second blast during an anniversary event at the cemetery where Soleimani is buried in the southeastern city of Kerman.
An unnamed official told the state news agency IRNA that “two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman’s Martyrs’ Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists.”
Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for Iran’s emergency services, was reported as saying 73 people had been killed and 170 injured. State television said later that at least 100 people had been killed.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Videos aired by Iranian media showed dozens of bodies strewn around with some bystanders trying to attend to survivors and others hurrying to leave the blast area.
“A terrible sound was heard there, despite all the security and safety measures. We are still investigating,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman Red Crescent Society, told state television.
Red Crescent rescuers tended to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s death. Some Iranian news agencies said the number of wounded people was much higher.
“We are now evacuating the wounded and injured in the area. The crowd is huge and the job is quite hard all the paths to there are blocked,” Fallah said.
The US killed Soleimani in a drone attack at Baghdad airport in 2020. Tehran retaliated by attacking two Iraq military bases that house US troops.
As chief commander of the elite Quds force — the overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organization — Soleimani ran clandestine operations in foreign countries and was a key figure in Iran’s long-standing campaign to drive US forces out of the Middle East. He was responsible for Iran’s proxies and terror operations abroad.
Tensions between Iran and Israel, along with its ally the United States, have reached a new high over Israel‘s war on Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia has attacked ships it says have links to Israel in the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
US forces have come under attack by Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over Washington’s backing of Israel and have carried out their own retaliatory air strikes.
On Monday an Israeli airstrike killed a senior leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria.
Iran has in the past blamed Israel for attacks on individual people or places within its borders — claims which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied — but there was no indication of any foreign involvement in the explosions at Wednesday’s ceremony.
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