U.S., Israel blamed for Iran blasts
Two bombs denotated by remote control 15 minutes apart killing an initial 95 people
Daily TribuneTwo bombs denotated by remote control 15 minutes apart killing an initial 95 people
STRINGER / AFPTV / AFP
An Iranian official blamed Israel and the United States for the twin explosions near the grave of a revered general that killed at least 95 people on Wednesday.
"Make no mistake. The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist regimes (Israel)," the Iranian president's political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi wrote on X following the explosions near the Martyrs Cemetery at the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in Kerman, the southern hometown of Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq in 2020.
Supporters of the general were gathered near his cemetery to commemorate his killing when the bombs exploded.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "evil and criminal enemies" of the country for the attack and vowed a "harsh response."
President Ebrahim Raisi, who scrapped a visit to Turkey on Thursday, condemned the "heinous" crime as the Islamic Republic of Iran declared Thursday a national day of mourning.
Washington and Tel Aviv denied responsibility for the bombings.
"The United States was not involved in any way… We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: "We are focused on the combat with Hamas."
Hagari was referring to the Palestinian terrorists hiding in Gaza after massacring 1,240 people and kidnapping 240 others in southern Israel on 7 October.
IRNA said the first explosion took place around 700 meters from Soleimani's grave while the other was around one kilometer away.
Tasnim news agency, quoting what it called informed sources, said that "two bags carrying bombs went off" and "the perpetrators… apparently detonated the bombs by remote control."
Online footage showed panicked crowds scrambling to flee as security personnel cordoned off the area.
State television showed bloodied victims lying on the ground and ambulances and rescue personnel racing to help them.
By nightfall, crowds returned to the Martyrs Cemetery in Kerman chanting: "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."
The blasts came a day after Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri — an Iran ally — was killed in a strike, which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel, on a southern Beirut suburb that is a stronghold of Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Wednesday's bomb blasts were Iran's deadliest since a 1978 arson Cinema Rex attack in the southwestern city of Abadan, which killed at least 377 people, according to Agence France-Presse archives.
