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Iranian authorities have arrested 11 people linked to Wednesday's bombings in the central Iranian city of Kerman that killed dozens of people, the country's intelligence ministry said in a statement published on state media.
Two suspects who “aided and cared for” the two suspected suicide bombers were arrested on Thursday. Nine other people who Iranian officials believe are part of a network supporting the bombers were arrested in six provinces, the ministry said. Iranian officials said the two bombers worked for Daesh, the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, or ISIS.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message posted on social media on Thursday.
The operation to arrest people linked to the bombing “will in any case continue until the arrest of the last person who was involved in any way and to any extent in supporting the criminals,” the ministry said.
The two explosions in Kerman killed at least 89 people and injured more than 200, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing Iranian officials. They struck as thousands of mourners gathered on the city's streets to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a top commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
Iranian authorities said one of the two suicide bombers was a Tajik citizen, while the nationality of the other “has not yet been conclusively established.” Officials said they found, among other things, two explosive vests, two remote control devices and detonators as well as several thousand bullets and cables for the vests in the two bombers' apartment.
The Washington Post could not immediately verify the Intelligence Department's information.