Two bombs exploded in quick succession in the southern Iranian city of Kerman. Photo: Getty
Two deadly bombs have exploded in Iran as hundreds of people gathered to commemorate the fourth anniversary of a top commander’s assassination by the US.
The twin blasts are believed to be the deadliest attack in the history of the Islamic Republic and come amid rising tensions in the Middle East after a Hamas leader was assassinated in Lebanon on Tuesday.
Iranian Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi told state TV the death toll was at 95, down from 103.
Iran state television reports one of the bombs was in a suitcase planted in a Peugeot 405 near a procession passing the tomb of General Qasem Soleimani, who had been Iran’s top security and intelligence commander.
Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq, authorised by President Donald Trump, in 2020.
General Suleimani was said to be the mastermind behind most major Iranian intelligence and military operations in the two decades before his death.
The US assassination of Soleimani in a drone attack at Baghdad airport and Iran’s retaliation by attacking two Iraq military bases that house US troops brought the United States and Iran close to full-blown conflict in 2020.
Iranians in 2020 protest the assassination of Commander Qasem Soleimani. Photo: Getty
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombings on Wednesday (local time) and Iran has not laid blame but said it was the work of unspecified “terrorists”.
Iranian state television reported a first and then second blast during the crowded event at the cemetery where Soleimani is buried in the southeastern city of Kerman.
An unnamed official told state news agency IRNA that “two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman’s Martyrs’ Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists”.
State television said that at least 103 people had been killed and 211 others injured.
Some Iranian news agencies said the number of wounded was much higher.
“I heard a very loud sound and then felt pain in my back… then I could not feel my legs,” a wounded woman at a Kerman hospital told state television.
Other videos aired by Iranian media showed dozens of bodies strewn around with some bystanders trying to help 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,” Fallah said.
Later, the state news agency said the cemetery had been evacuated and closed until further notice.
The government announced that Thursday would be a day of mourning.
The crowd disperses after the ‘terror’ blasts in Iran. Photo: Getty
While the authorities have not publicly assigned blame, Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi vowed a strong response.
“Those who committed these crimes should expect a strong and decisive response by Iran’s security forces,” Vahidi told state TV, adding that “everything is under control now and calm has been restored”.
In 2022, the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran which killed 15 people.
Earlier attacks claimed by the group include deadly twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Baluchi militants and ethnic Arab separatists have also staged attacks in Iran.
Soleimani was chief commander of the elite Quds force — the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — and ran clandestine operations in other countries. He was a key figure in Iran’s long-standing campaign to drive US forces out of the Middle East.
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 militants in Gaza in retaliation for their October 7 rampage through southern Israel.
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 involvement of a foreign state in the explosions at Wednesday’s ceremony.
-with AAP