Iranian Leaders Vow Harsh Response After Blasts Kill at Least 84 at Soleimani Commemoration

At least 84 people were killed when two bombs exploded at a commemoration for slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in the city of Kerman, about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of Tehran, on Wednesday.

Thousands of people had gathered near the Kerman Martyrs Cemetery to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Soleimani, the former head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, when the first bomb exploded about 3 pm some 700 meters (765 yards) from Soleimani’s gravesite. Survivors scattered in panic, and the second bomb exploded about 20 minutes later about 1 kilometer (1,090 yards) away in a street where much of the crowd had gathered, causing more casualties.

Authorities announced a day of mourning on Thursday and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged “a harsh response” against those responsible. President Ebrahim Raisi, also vowed that “the perpetrators and leaders of this cowardly act will soon be identified and punished.”

The attack came one day after Hamas deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in Beirut in an alleged Israeli drone strike, and a senior adviser to the Iranian president, Mohammad Jamshidi, quickly claimed without evidence that Israel and the United States were behind the attack in Iran.

However, the US dismissed any suggestion that it was involved and said it had no indication that Israel was involved.

Suspicion may fall on Arab separatist and Sunni jihadist groups such as Islamic State, which have carried out attacks on civilians and security forces in the country in recent years.

Until Wednesday, the deadliest attack in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution was a 1981 truck bombing at the Islamic Republican Party’s headquarters in Tehran, which killed at least 72 people, including the party’s leader and many government ministers, deputy ministers, and members of parliament.