At least 103 people were killed and more than 180 injured in an attack on Wednesday near the tomb of Qassem Soleimani, architect of Iran’s military operations in the Middle East, whose death Iran is commemorating on the fourth anniversary, news reports said. state media.
A double explosion took place near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque, where the tomb of General Soleimani is located, in Kerman, southern Iran. A compact crowd made up of representatives of the regime and anonymous people was gathered there for a ceremony.
The attack, described as an attack by Iranian officials and state media, but which was not immediately claimed, comes in a very tense regional context since the start of the conflict almost three years ago. months between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the day after the elimination of a senior official of the Palestinian Islamist movement in a drone strike near Beirut.
“The number of people killed rose to 103 after people succumbed to their injuries,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency said. State television reported 181 people injured, some in “critical condition”.
“Following the terrorist attack in Kerman, the government decreed tomorrow [jeudi] day of national mourning throughout the country,” state television also indicated.
The attack, the deadliest in Iran since 1979, was quickly described as a “terrorist” act by Rahman Jalali, deputy governor of Kerman province, in southern Iran.
President Ebrahim Raïssi condemned an “odious and cowardly” act, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, deeming it “shocking in its cruelty and cynicism” in a message sent to Ebrahim Raïssi and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Kremlin.
Remote control bombs
Qassem Soleimani was killed in January 2020, at the age of 62, during an American drone attack in Iraq. A key figure in the Iranian regime, he was also one of the country’s most popular public figures.
According to the Iranian Tasnim agency, which cites well-informed sources, the explosions were caused by “bombs hidden in two bags”. “The perpetrators apparently activated the bombs via a remote control,” according to the same source.
“We were walking towards the cemetery when a car suddenly stopped behind us and a trash can containing a bomb exploded,” said a witness quoted by the ISNA news agency.
Among those killed were three rescue workers who rushed to the area after the first explosion, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
The ISNA agency, which quotes the mayor of Kerman, Said Tabrizi, explains that the explosions occurred ten minutes apart.
Videos posted on social media showed participants desperately trying to leave the site as security personnel cordoned off the area. In other videos, people can be seen running, panicked and disoriented.
Shortly after the explosions, rescuers were on site. Numerous ambulances were also on the scene.
Iran has already been the scene of attacks and bombings that have left dozens dead, several of which have been claimed by groups described as “terrorists” by Tehran.
In 2019, a suicide car bomb attack on a Revolutionary Guard bus killed 27 soldiers in southeastern Iran. This attack was then claimed by Jaish al-Adl, a jihadist group formed in 2012.
“Living Martyr”
Qassem Soleimani led 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 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while he was still alive, Soleimani was considered a hero for his role in the defeat of the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.
In the eyes of many Iranians, its military and strategic prowess helped avert the multi-ethnic disintegration of neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
Long considered a sworn enemy by the United States and its allies, Soleimani was one of the region’s most important power brokers, setting Iran’s political and military agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. , according to observers.