ISIS today claimed responsibility for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores more at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020.

Two explosions tore through the southeastern city of Kerman yesterday where thousands had gathered to mark the four-year anniversary of Soleimani’s killing.

Harrowing video showed scores of bloodied victims lying on the floor as others stumbled away from the blast scene close to the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque where Soleimani is buried in what Iran described as a ‘terrorist attack’.

Now, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack that left 84 people dead and 284 wounded, saying that two of their terrorists detonated their explosive vests in the middle of a crowd. 

Tehran earlier blamed the explosions on ‘terrorists’ and vowed revenge for the bloodiest such attacks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 

‘A very strong retaliation will be meted out to them by the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani,’ Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber told reporters in Kerman. 

Iranian emergency services arrive at the site where two explosions in quick succession struck a crowd marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards general Qasem Soleimani, near the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in the southern Iranian city of Kerman on January 3, 2024

Damaged cars are seen as people try to help victims after an explosion next to the tomb of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief of foreign operations in the Saheb al-Zaman mosque in the southern city of Kerman, Iran on 3 January 2024

Families of victims of the explosions gather at the courtyard of a hospital in the city of Kerman on Wednesday

The first explosion was quickly followed by a second close to a cemetery in the southeastern city of Kerman where thousands had gathered to mark the four-year anniversary of Soleimani’s (file image) killing

ISIS have carried out large-scale attacks in the past that killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran but yesterday’s assault marks the worst mass casualty attack in decades. 

Earlier, an unnamed source told the state news agency IRNA that the first explosion at the cemetery in Kerman, Soleimani’s home town, ‘was the result of a suicide bomber’s action’.

‘The cause of the second blast was most likely the same,’ the source told IRNA.

Iran today observed a day of mourning for those killed in the devastating blasts that ripped through the throngs of people who were commemorating Soleimani at 2.45pm yesterday (11.15am GMT). 

An earlier death toll of 103 was twice revised lower after officials realised that some names had been repeated on a list of victims and due to the severity of wounds suffered by some of the dead, health authorities said. Many of the wounded were in critical condition, however, so the death toll could rise. 

Video showed plumes of smoke rising up into the sky as thousands of people who had been walking towards the cemetery screamed in horror. The crowd were seen running away after the two explosions ripped through Kerman. 

Thousands had gathered to mark the four-year anniversary of the ruthless commander’s assassination when the explosions erupted just 700 metres from Soleimani’s grave.

Several people were also injured in a stampede as they tried to flee the carnage, with several ambulances rushing to the scene. 

But rescuers told how they were delayed in rushing the wounded to hospital due to the huge crowds blocking the roads. 

‘Our rapid response teams are evacuating the injured… But there are waves of crowds blocking roads,’ Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent rescuers told state TV yesterday. 

Thousands had gathered in the city to pay their respects to Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike at Baghdad International Airport in neighbouring Iraq in 2020. 

Soleimani, who headed the Guards’ foreign operations arm the Quds Force, was also a staunch enemy of ISIS. 

The United Nations Security Council today condemned Wednesday’s ‘cowardly terrorist attack’ in Kerman and sent its condolences to the victims’ families and the Iranian government.

In 2022 ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran which killed 15 people.

People chant slogans at the scene of Wednesday’s bomb explosion in the city of Kerman on Thursday 

This picture shows people and Iranian emergency personnel at the site where two explosions in quick succession struck a crowd marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards general Qasem Soleimani on Wednesday 

The bodies of victims killed in two explosions in Kerman lie at a hospital in the city on Wednesday

A view of the scene after explosions near Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s tomb, in Kerman City, Iran on January 03, 2024

People are seen after an explosion in Kerman, Iran, on Wednesday

Rescuers told how they were delayed in rushing the wounded to hospital due to the huge crowds blocking the roads

Earlier attacks claimed by ISIS include twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The United States denied on Wednesday any involvement in the explosions and said it also had no reason to believe Israel was involved. It said the blasts appeared to represent ‘a terrorist attack’ of the type carried out in the past by ISIS.

Tehran often accuses its arch enemies, Israel and the United States, of backing anti-Iran militant groups that have carried out attacks against the Islamic Republic in the past. Baluchi militants and ethnic Arab separatists have also staged attacks in Iran.

Indeed, state TV showed crowds gathered at dozen cities across Iran, including Kerman, chanting: ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America’. 

Iranian authorities have called for mass protests on Friday, when the funerals of the victims of the twin blasts will be held, state media reported. 

And Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps described the attacks as a cowardly act ‘aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation’s deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic’. 

The US assassination of Soleimani in a January 3, 2020, drone attack at Baghdad airport, and Tehran’s retaliation – by attacking two Iraqi military bases that house U.S. troops – brought the United States and Iran close to full-blown conflict.

Soleimani had arrived at the airport on a plane from either Syria or Lebanon around 12.30am when he was met on the tarmac by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, then-deputy commander of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq.

Four precision missiles fired from a U.S. drone struck the two cars carrying Soleimani and his entourage, on Jan 3, 2020, in Baghdad

An American airstrike on Baghdad airport killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s powerful Quds force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy-leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, on January 3, 2020, in Baghdad

Moments later, as their cars passed through a cargo area headed for an access road leading out of the airport, the convoy was struck by four missiles fired by an MQ-9 Reaper drone.

Both vehicles were instantly reduced to smouldering wrecks – killing Soleimani, Muhandis, and three others. 

As chief commander of the elite Quds force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani ran clandestine operations abroad and was a key figure in Iran’s longstanding campaign to drive US forces from the Middle East. 

He was credited with helping to arm, train and lead armed groups across the region, including the Shiite militias in Iraq, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and fighters in Syria, the Palestinian territories and Yemen.

Tensions between Iran and Israel, along with its ally the United States, have reached a new high over Israel’s war on Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza in retaliation for their October 7 rampage through southern Israel.

Who was Qasem Soleimani, Iranian general killed by US airstrike? 

Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in 2020, was one of the most popular figures in Iran and seen as a deadly adversary by America and its allies.

General Soleimani, who headed the external operations Quds Force for the Guards, had wielded his regional clout publicly since 2018 when it was revealed that he had direct involvement in top-level talks over the formation of Iraq’s government.

It was no surprise at the time for a man who was at the centre of power-broking in the region for two decades.

Where once he kept to the shadows, Soleimani had become an unlikely celebrity in Iran with a huge following on Instagram.

Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani (center) ‘was personally the most popular regime figure in Iran’ said one expert on Middle East affairs

His profile rose suddenly when he was pushed forward as the public face of Iran’s intervention in the Syrian conflict from 2013, appearing in battlefield photos, documentaries – and even being featured in a music video and animated film.

In a rare interview aired on Iranian state television in October, he said he was in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war to oversee the conflict.

To his fans and enemies alike, Soleimani was the key architect of Iran’s regional influence, leading the fight against jihadist forces and extending Iran’s diplomatic heft in Iraq, Syria and beyond.

‘To Middle Eastern Shiites, he is James Bond, Erwin Rommel and Lady Gaga rolled into one,’ wrote former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack in a profile for Time’s 100 most influential people in 2017.

‘To the West, he is… responsible for exporting Iran’s Islamic revolution, supporting terrorists, subverting pro-Western governments and waging Iran’s foreign wars,’ Pollack added.

With Iran roiled by protests and economic problems at home, and the US once again mounting pressure from the outside, some Iranians had even called for Soleimani to enter domestic politics.

As well as talks on forming a government, he was pivotal in pressuring Iraq’s Kurds to abandon their plans for independence after an ill-judged referendum in 2019.

Soleimani was key military decision-maker in Iran

His influence has deep roots, since Soleimani was already leading the Quds Force when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

‘My Iranian interlocutors on Afghanistan made clear that while they kept the foreign ministry informed, ultimately it was General Soleimani that would make the decisions,’ former US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the BBC in 2013.

His firm but quiet presence play perfectly to the Iranian penchant for dignified humility.

‘He sits over there on the other side of room, by himself, in a very quiet way. Doesn’t speak, doesn’t comment, just sits and listens. And so of course everyone is thinking only about him,’ a senior Iraqi official told the New Yorker for a long profile of Soleimani.

A survey published in 2018 by IranPoll and the University of Maryland — one of the few considered reliable by analysts — found Soleimani had a popularity rating of 83 percent, beating President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Western leaders saw him as central to Iran’s ties with militia groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.

Part of his appeal was the suggestion he might bridge Iran’s bitter social divides on issues such as its strict ‘hijab’ clothing rules.

‘If we constantly use terms such as ‘bad hijab’ and ‘good hijab’, reformist or conservative… then who is left?’ Soleimani said in a speech to mark World Mosque Day in 2017.

‘They are all people. Are all your children religious? Is everybody the same? No, but the father attracts all of them.’

-AFP