89 people were killed at a memorial service in Kerman on Wednesday. According to the IS terrorist militia, two assassins detonated their explosive belts.
Iran's president, Ebrahim Raisi, and the commander of the Revolutionary Guard threaten to retaliate after the IS attack. “We will meet them wherever they are,” Major General Hossein Salami said on Friday at the funeral of the victims of the bomb attack, for which radical Islamic IS claimed responsibility. 89 people were killed on Wednesday at a ceremony commemorating the 4th anniversary of the death of the head of the Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani, in Kerman.
300 people were injured in the attack in Soleimani's hometown. ISIS said on Thursday that two of its members carried out a suicide attack in the crowd using explosive belts. It was the deadliest in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic. According to consistent Iranian media reports, a dozen children under the age of 15 were among the dead.
Two killers detonated explosive belts
According to the IS terrorist militia, two assassins detonated their explosive belts during the Soleimani memorial events in Kerman. IS considers Iran's predominant Shiite population to be apostates from Islam and despises them. Shia, the smaller of the two main branches of Islam, is the official religion of the Islamic Republic.
“Our enemies can see the power of Iran and the entire world knows its strength and capabilities,” said President Raisi in a televised speech. “Our armed forces will decide the place and time of action. Rest assured that the power of initiative is in the hands of our God-ordained troops.”
Funeral ceremonies took place on Friday at the Imam Ali Mosque in the city of Kerman, where crowds gathered in front of dozens of coffins covered with the Iranian flag, state television reported. Family members wept over the coffins of the dead draped in the Iranian flag. “Revenge, revenge,” demanded the mourners. They chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Those present also carried yellow flags of pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon and portraits of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the US military four years ago. The death toll was officially estimated at 89 on Friday after two more people succumbed to their injuries.
Government criticizes USA and Israel
The government in Tehran has repeatedly accused the US and Israel of supporting militant groups in attacks in the Islamic Republic. IS claimed responsibility for several attacks in Iran. In 2022, 15 people were killed in an attack on a Shiite shrine. In 2017, IS claimed to have carried out explosive attacks on the Iranian parliament and the tomb of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini.
Soleimani killed in US drone strike
Hundreds of people gathered at his grave on the anniversary of Soleimani's death. The general of the influential Revolutionary Guard was killed in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in early 2020. He was commander of the Quds Brigade, the Revolutionary Guard's elite unit for overseas operations.
At the mourning ceremony in Kerman, Iranian leaders threatened their enemies. According to the Minister of Interior, Ahmad Wahidi, the first arrests related to the attack also took place. Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said: “Rest assured, we will not allow the enemy to dominate.”
However, the head of the Site Intelligence Group, which specializes in extremist propaganda, Rita Katz, believes that IS's influence in the region is limited. The expert wrote in an analysis that IS has no recognizable leader or central headquarters. According to her, the Islamic organization therefore has “no prospect of recovering in the near future the importance it once had in the Middle East”. (APA/Portal)