[Politics] Over 100 dead in blasts at memorial for assassinated Iranian commander

[7aMoDi]

Two explosions occurred at Kerman ceremony marking fourth anniversary of killing of top general Qassem Suleimani

Over 100 people dead after two explosions hit Qassem Suleimani memorial in Iran – video report

 

Over 100 dead in blasts at memorial for assassinated Iranian commander Two explosions occurred at Kerman ceremony marking fourth anniversary of killing of top general Qassem Suleimani Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor Wed 3 Jan 2024 15.57 GMT Two explosions have killed at least 103 people and injured scores more at a memorial ceremony in Iran marking the fourth anniversary of the US killing of Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force and one of the most powerful men in the Middle East. A senior official called the blasts a terrorist attack, without elaborating on who could be behind them. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for what appeared to be the deadliest attack to target Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. According to IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, the first explosion in the south-central city of Kerman occurred 700 metres (0.4 miles) from Suleimani’s burial place and the second 1km from it.

State-run media cited Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for the country’s emergency service, as saying 73 people had been killed and 170 wounded. State television later reported that the death toll had climbed to 103. Initially, local officials said it was not known if the explosions were caused by gas canisters, or suicide bombers. Later, officials said the explosions occurred in two bombs that were detonated remotely, and classified the incident as terrorism. The blasts occurred on the roads leading to Golzar Shohada, the Garden of Martyrs cemetery in Kerman. Suleimani’s body is buried there along with more than 1,000 other people regarded as martyrs, and the site has become a place of pilgrimage for supporters of the so-called “axis of resistance” against the US and the west. Suleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020 and was seen as the leader directing Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and Syria. Iran has multiple foes who could be behind the attack, including exile groups, militant organisations and state actors. A representative of Kerman province accused agents of Israel of committing the offence, the first elected representative reported to make such an attribution. Separately, Kianush Jahanpur, the former spokesperson of Iran’s health ministry, said on social media: “The answer to this crime should only be in Tel Aviv, Haifa.”

 

A still image from a video released by the Iran Press news agency shows the site where two explosions occurred on Wednesday. Photograph: Iran Press/AFP/Getty Images

 

Iran only recently said it had eradicated a group backed by the Mossad, the Israeli state secret service. Some analysts said it would be unusual for Israel to undertake a generalised attack on civilians with no high-level military targets and so did not fit a previous pattern of what Israel has done to date inside Iran. Israel rarely comments on international operations. Israel is suspected of launching an attack on Tuesday that killed a deputy head of Hamas in Beirut, but that attack saw limited casualties in a densely po[CENSORED]ted neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital. On 25 December, an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed a top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, prompting Tehran to threaten that Israel would “certainly pay” for its actions. Iranian state media identified the commander as Razi Mousavi, a senior adviser of the Quds Force, saying he had been killed in an airstrike near the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israel has in the past carried out the targeted assassinations of nuclear scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear programme. Hospitals in Kerman and surrounding areas have been put on alert to treat the injured. Other major terrorist incidents inside Iran include two simultaneous attacks that were carried out by five terrorists belonging to Islamic State in 2017. The Iranian parliament building and the mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, both in Tehran, were hit, killing 17 civilians and injuring 43. Tehran has claimed it has stopped multiple other Isis attacks inside Iran that were targeted at civilians in public places. Suleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy. He also helped secure Bashar Assad’s Syrian government after the 2011 Arab Spring protests against him turned into a civil, and later a regional, war that still rages today. Suleimani’s po[CENSORED]rity and mystique grew after American officials called for his killing over his help arming militants with roadside bombs that killed and maimed US troops. A drone strike launched by the Trump administration killed the general, part of escalating incidents after America’s 2018 unilateral withdrawal from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/03/dead-in-blasts-at-memorial-for-assassinated-iranian-commander