Iran: Explosions near tomb of former general Qasem Soleimani kill at least 103

More than 100 people have killed and almost 150 injured in two explosions near the tomb of Iran’s former top commander – who was assassinated in a US drone strike in 2020.

The blasts occurred near the cemetery where a ceremony was held to mark the anniversary of the killing of Qassem Soleimani. Iranian state television reported a first and then a second explosion during an anniversary event at the cemetery where Soleimani is buried in the southeastern city of Kerman. about 500 miles from Tehran. Footage suggested that the second blast occurred some 15 minutes after the first.

State televsion said at least 103 people had been killed and 141 injured. Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for Iran’s emergency services, had earlier put the number of injured at more than 170.

“The blasts were caused by terrorist attacks,” state media quoted a local official in the Kerman province as saying. without elaborating on who could be behind them amid wider tensions in the Middle East over Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran supports Hamas as well as the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. A delayed second explosion is often used by militants to target emergency personnel responding to the scene and inflict more casualties.

An unnamed official told the state news agency IRNA that “Two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman’s Martyrs’ Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists”.

(ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

State TV showed Red Crescent rescuers attending to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s death. Some Iranian news agencies said the number of wounded people was much higher.

“We are now evacuating the wounded and injured in the area. The crowd is huge and the job is quite hard all the paths to there are blocked,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent told state TV.

Authorities said some people were injured while fleeing afterward. People could be heard screaming in state TV footage.

Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities, as chief commander of the elite Quds force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was in charge of the Quds Force’s clandestine missions and its provision of guidance, funding, weapons, intelligence, and logistical support to allied governments and armed groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Relatively unknown in Iran until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Soleimani’s popularity in the country grew after American officials called for his killing over his help arming militants with penetrating roadside bombs that killed and maimed American troops.

A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognisable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but growing as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership. He was one of the most powerful men in the Middle East.

The site where Soleimani is buried has become a place of pilgrimage for supporters of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance” against the US and the West.

Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani during his term as president. He described Soleimani as “the number-one terrorist anywhere in the world”.

Soleimani’s death has drawn large processions in the past. At his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 were injured as thousands thronged the procession.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

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