(Tehran) The armed group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility on Thursday for the attack which left 84 dead in Iran the day before, near the tomb of General Qassem Soleimani, former architect of Iranian military operations in the Middle East, including country commemorated the death in 2020.
Via its Telegram channels, the jihadist group indicated that two of its members “activated their explosive belt” in the middle of “a large gathering of apostates, near the tomb of their leader “Qassem Soleimani” yesterday in Kerman, in southern Iran.
This double explosion occurred in a very tense regional context since the start of the conflict in October between Israel and Hamas, and the day after the elimination of a senior official of the Palestinian Islamist movement in a strike near Beirut, attributed to Israel. .
According to the official Irna agency, citing “an informed source”, the first explosion was caused by a suicide bomber, a man, whose body was torn to pieces. For the second, the investigation continues, but it was most likely also a suicide bomber, adds Irna.
In Iran, officials immediately pointed the finger at Israel and the United States for this attack on Wednesday in Kerman (south), near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque which houses the tomb of General Soleimani killed in January 2020 in a drone attack American in Iraq.
PHOTO ATTA KENARE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A compact crowd of representatives of the Iranian regime and anonymous people attended the memorial ceremony.
A political adviser to the Iranian president, Mohammad Jamshidi, accused the “American and Zionist regimes” of being behind the attack, which has not yet been claimed.
In the United States, the State Department called “absurd” any suggestion of US or Israeli involvement in what “looks like a terrorist attack, the kind of thing that ISIS [groupe État islamique] has done in the past,” according to a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The death toll was revised downward again on Thursday. After 103 deaths announced by IRNA then 95 by the Minister of Health, Bahram Eynollahi, the head of the country’s emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, reported 84 deaths and 284 injured.
Iran declared Thursday a “national day of mourning” after this attack, the deadliest in the country since 1978, when an arson attack left at least 377 dead in a cinema in Abadan, according to AFP archives.
“Severe response”
Iran’s sworn enemy, Israel, has not commented on the attack. “We are focused on the fighting with Hamas” in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, said Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” to this act described as “odious and cowardly” by President Ebrahim Raïssi, who canceled a trip planned for Thursday to Turkey, according to an Iranian media outlet. State.
PHOTO ATTA KENARE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ebrahim Raïssi
A first explosion occurred 700 m from General Soleimani’s grave, the second one kilometer further, according to Iranian sources.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, supported by Tehran, denounced a “terrorist act […] which seeks to destabilize the security of the Islamic Republic in the service of the agenda of the Zionist entity [Israël] “.
Syria expressed “its complete solidarity in the face of the terrorist attacks and shameful plots” which, according to it, target its Iranian ally.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced an attack “shocking in its cruelty and cynicism”.
The UN secretary general, the European Union, France, Germany, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia also condemned the attack.
Qassem Soleimani was a key figure in the Iranian regime and one of the country’s most popular figures.
Long considered a sworn enemy of Washington and its allies, he headed the Quds Force, the external operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, overseeing military operations throughout the Middle East.
Declared a “living martyr” by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while he was still alive, Qassem Soleimani was celebrated for his role in the defeat of the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.