Two blasts on Wednesday shook a tragedy in Kerman, in southeast Iran, causing over 200 people injured and at least 95 dead. Hundreds of people had come to pay tribute to commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020 when the explosion occurred. Iranian official television said that the second explosion occurred around twenty minutes after the first.

Nobody claimed for the explosions. Yet, the incident was attributed to unidentified “terrorists” by Iranian officials. A top US official for the Biden administration stated that the explosions seemed to be “a terrorist attack” similar to others that Islamic State terrorists have previously carried out.

Two blasts in Iran

The two explosions that occurred in Iran on Wednesday were the worst attack in the country’s history. The Islamic Republic has previously experienced similar occurrences from several groups, including the Islamic State. The number of fatalities was reduced from 103 to 95, according to Iranian Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi, when authorities noticed that several names on a list of casualties had been repeated.

The Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force commander, General Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone attack in neighboring Iraq four years ago, and the explosions that marked the occasion sent shockwaves through the whole region. Long queues of people came for the ceremony as the explosions happened close to his cemetery.

Explosion in Kerman

Approximately 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of Tehran, the capital, the city of Kerman was rocked by the explosions. A yelling throng running from the first explosion was hit by shrapnel blasted by the second explosion.

According to Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s interior minister, the first bomb went off on Wednesday at around 3 p.m. local time, and the second one went off around 20 minutes later. This information was broadcast on official television. He added that most individuals were killed and injured in the second explosion.

Heinous and inhumane crime

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called the attack a “heinous and inhumane crime” and fiercely denounced it. The perpetrators and leaders of this cowardly act (in Kerman) will soon be identified and punished by the security and law enforcement forces. The enemies of the Iranian nation should know that such actions (terrorist attacks in Kerman) can never disrupt the iron-clad determination of the people to defend Islamic ideals. Enemies cannot even tolerate the burial site of Martyr General Soleimani,”

The brutal double bombings were also met with vengeance, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, declared, “Cruel criminals… must know that they will be strongly dealt with from now on and… undoubtedly there will be a harsh response.”

Soleimani Memorial

A sizable group of mourners could be seen on the road leading to Soleimani’s cemetery in Kerman in a satellite image made public by the news agency Reuters. In addition, the picture displayed vehicles and buses close to the cemetery and the site of one of the explosions before it occurred.

According to a senior Biden administration source in Washington, the explosions seemed to be “a terrorist attack” similar to ones that Islamic State terrorists have previously carried out. There was no proof that a foreign state was involved in the cemetery blasts, despite Iran’s previous accusations that Israel was responsible for attacks on specific individuals or locations inside its borders. Israel has never verified nor rejected these accusations.

The state news agency IRNA was informed by an unidentified official that “two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman’s Martyrs’ Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists,” according to Reuters.

Social media videos showed onlookers attempting to assist survivors and others rushing to get out of the bomb zone. Rescuers from the Iranian Red Crescent also raced to the blast site and helped a large number of injured people. While other nations, including Russia and Turkey, denounced the assaults, a different social media video featured images from a hospital where a large number of the injured were transported.

The UN Secretary-General demanded that those in charge answer for their actions. Along with offering his sympathies, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that his country opposes terrorism in all its manifestations.

Supporters of Iran’s theocracy celebrate Soleimani as a national hero who designed the country’s military operations in the area. Additionally, he assisted in securing the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad following the 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations against him, which erupted into a civil war that eventually spread to the region and is still raging today.It was not until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 that Soleimani gained any recognition in Iran. After American officials demanded that he be murdered for providing insurgents with roadside bombs that could penetrate and kill US forces, he became even more popular and mysterious. After fifteen years, Soleimani was the most recognizable combat leader in Iran. The general was ultimately assassinated by a drone strike carried out by the Trump administration, as part of a series of increasingly serious events that ensued after America unilaterally withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear agreement with other world powers in 2018.

In the past, Soleimani’s passing has attracted sizable processions. A stampede occurred in Kerman during his funeral in 2020, injuring over 200 people and killing at least 56 as thousands of people flocked to the procession. Iran has reportedly been arming terrorist organizations for decades, including Hamas, Hezbollah, a Shiite terror organization in Lebanon, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to an Associated Press report. Following 1,200 casualties from Hamas’s October 7 strikes, Israel is waging a catastrophic war in Gaza. Meanwhile, Hezbollah and the Houthis have both begun attacks against Israel, claiming that they are acting on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Although the attack in Beirut on Tuesday that killed a deputy head of Hamas is thought to have been launched by Israel, the report said that there were only a few casualties in a very crowded area of the Lebanese city. A Revolutionary Guard commander was murdered in Syria last week by what appeared to be an Israeli strike.

It said that Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a Houthi spokesman, attempted to connect the bombs to Iran’s “support for the resistance forces in Palestine and Lebanon,” but he did not point the finger at anyone in particular.

In 2022, 15 Shi’ites were killed in an attack on an Iranian shrine, which was attributed to the Sunni Muslim terrorist organization Islamic State. Previous assaults attributed to the group include the lethal twin explosions that took place in 2017 and targeted the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and Iran’s parliament. Attacks have also been staged in Iran by ethnic Arab separatists and Baluchi terrorists.

The United States and Iran came dangerously close to a full-scale conflict after the US killed Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020, and Tehran retaliated by assaulting two Iraqi military outposts that are home to US forces. Because Washington supports Israel, US soldiers have been attacked by militants backed by Iran in Syria and Iraq. In response, the US has launched retaliatory attacks.

SOURCE: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iran-blasts-death-toll-iran-explosions-latest-developments-kerman-city-qassem-soleimani-terror-attack-2484015-2024-01-04