Iran twin blasts kill 103 near grave of Guards general Soleimani

TEHRAN — Twin bomb blasts killed at least 103 people in Iran on Wednesday, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards General Qassem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike, state media reported.

The two explosions — unclaimed but labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities — came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.

The blasts, about 15 minutes apart, struck near the Martyrs Cemetery at the Saheb Al Zaman Mosque in Kerman, Soleimani's southern hometown, as supporters gathered to mark his killing in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.

"The number of people killed rose to 103 following the deaths of people injured during the terrorist explosions," said the official IRNA news agency, while state TV reported 181 wounded, some in critical condition.

Among those killed were three paramedics who rushed to the scene after the first explosion, said Iran's Red Crescent.

President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the "heinous" crime as the Islamic Republic of Iran declared on Thursday a national day of mourning.

Tasnim news agency, quoting what it called informed sources, said “two bags carrying bombs went off” and that “the perpetrators... apparently detonated the bombs by remote control”.

Online footage showed panicked crowds scrambling to flee as security personnel cordoned off the area.

State television showed bloodied victims lying on the ground and ambulances and rescue personnel racing to help them.

“We were walking towards the cemetery when a car suddenly stopped behind us and a waste bin containing a bomb exploded,” an eyewitness was quoted saying by the ISNA news agency.

“We only heard the explosion and saw people falling.”

‘Shocking cruelty’ 

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East.

Millions came to mourn the revered commander at his funeral.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over Wednesday’s twin blasts.

“The killing of peaceful people visiting the cemetery is shocking in its cruelty and cynicism,” Putin wrote to Raisi and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iraq said it “condemns the terrorist attack” and offered any help needed “to alleviate the impact of this cowardly criminal act”.

The blasts came a day after Hamas number two Saleh Al Aruri — an Iran ally — was killed in a strike, which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel, on a southern Beirut suburb that is a stronghold of Iran-backed armed group Hizbollah.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Iran bombings, the country’s deadliest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran has long fought a shadow war of killings and sabotage with arch enemy Israel and also battled various other militant groups.

In September, the Fars news agency reported that a key “operative” affiliated with the Daesh group, in charge of carrying out “terrorist operations” in Iran, had been arrested in Kerman.

In July, Iran’s intelligence ministry said it had disbanded a network which it said was “linked to Israel’s spy organisation” and which had been plotting “terrorist operations” across Iran including in Kerman, according to IRNA.

IRNA said the alleged plots included “planning an explosion at the grave” of Soleimani as well targeting other public gatherings

Iran has suffered previous attacks and bombings that claimed scores of lives, some claimed by groups that Tehran has classified as “terrorist” organisations.

In 2019, a suicide car bombing of a Guard bus killed 27 troops in south-eastern Iran. It was later claimed by Jaish Al Adl, a militant group formed in 2012.

Soleimani, whom Khamenei years ago declared a “living martyr”, was widely regarded as a hero in Iran for his role in defeating Daesh in both Iraq and Syria.

Long seen as a deadly adversary by the United States and its allies, Soleimani was one of the most important powerbrokers across the region, setting Iran’s political and military agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

A survey published in 2018 by IranPoll and the University of Maryland found Soleimani had a popularity rating of 83 per cent in Iran, ahead of then-president Hassan Rouhani.