A US official told the Associated Press (AP) today on condition of anonymity that Washington had complied with its longstanding policy of “the duty to warn other governments of potential deadly threats.”
The official did not elaborate on how the United States, which does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, delivered the warning about its intelligence on ISISKhorasan, an affiliate of IS in Afghanistan known as ISISK.
This source asserted that U.S. government officials “are issuing these warnings in part because they do not want innocent lives to be lost in terrorist attacks.”
Iranian state media did not acknowledge that the U.S. passed the information to Tehran, and Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP.
The IS group claimed responsibility for the attack on January 3 in Kerman, about 820 kilometers southeast of the Iranian capital Tehran.
The double suicide bombing killed at least 95 people and injured dozens more as they attended a tribute to Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
Since then, amid conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Iran has tried to blame the US and Israel for the attack.
Tehran has launched missile strikes against Iraq and Syria. They then launched attacks against nucleararmed Pakistan, which responded with attacks of its own against Iran, further ratcheting up tensions in a region inflamed by the IsraelHamas war.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report that the US had warned Iran.
ISISK was behind the suicide attack at Kabul airport in August 2021, which killed 13 US soldiers and around 170 Afghans during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This IS branch has thousands of members and is the Taliban's strongest enemy and greatest military threat. Since returning to power, the group has continued to carry out attacks in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Also read: Attack on Soleimani's grave? The US will have warned Iran days in advance
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