Iran vows revenge after twin blasts kill 84 at slain commander Soleimani’s memorial

DUBAI - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber vowed revenge on Jan 4 for explosions that killed 84 people at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was

killed by a US drone

in 2020 in Iraq.

“A very strong retaliation will be handed to them in the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani,” Mr Mokhber told reporters at a hospital where some of the wounded were receiving treatment for the bloodiest attack since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said the blasts appeared to represent “a terrorist attack” of the type carried out in the past by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants.

In a statement, Iran’s powerful Guards described the attack on Jan 3 as a cowardly act “aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation’s deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic”.

The Guards said the attack “strengthens the resolve to decisively and justly punish the perpetrators”.

The Guards commander in the south-eastern city of Kerman denied state media reports of a shooting in Kerman on Jan 4.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the “heinous and inhumane crime” and Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed revenge for the twin bombings.

Iran’s Red Crescent rescuers tended to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s killing.

Iranian state television reported a first and then a second blast after 20 minutes during a crowded fourth-anniversary event at the cemetery where Soleimani is buried in Kerman.

The death toll announced earlier was 95 but it has been revised to 84, the head of Iran’s emergency services, Mr Jafar Miadfar, confirmed.

He said the earlier tally was due to the fact that some bodies had been dismembered and counted several times. He added that 284 had been injured and 195 are still hospitalised.

Videos aired by Iranian state media showed dozens of bloodied bodies strewn around, with some bystanders trying to help survivors and others hurrying to leave the blast area.

“I heard a very loud sound and then felt pain in my back... then I could not feel my legs,” a wounded woman at a Kerman hospital told state television.

The cemetery was later evacuated and closed until further notice. The government announced that Jan 4 would be a day of mourning.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the blasts came amid high tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon on Jan 2.

An Iranian official blamed Israel and the US for the attack.

“The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist (Israeli) regimes, and terrorism is just a tool,” the Iranian President’s political deputy, Mr Mohammad Jamshidi, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

State TV showed crowds gathered at the cemetery at night, chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.

Teheran regularly accuses its arch-foe Israel and the US of inciting unrest in the country.

Washington, however, has rejected suggestions of either nation’s involvement.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told a regular news briefing that the US was not involved in any way and had no reason to believe Israel was.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it will use all international means to identify and bring to justice those involved in the attacks and their supporters. Meanwhile, President Raisi cancelled his planned visit to Turkey on Jan 3.

Condemnations poured in from neighbouring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the European Union and Russia.

China’s President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to the Iranian President on Jan 4 for the “terrorist attack”, Chinese state television CCTV said.

He “stressed that the Chinese side opposes all forms of terrorism, strongly condemns terrorist attacks and firmly supports Iran’s efforts to maintain national security and stability”, according to CCTV.

Earlier attacks

In 2022, the Sunni Muslim militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran which killed 15 people.

Earlier attacks claimed by the group include deadly twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran’s Parliament and the tomb of the Islamic republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Baluchi militants and ethnic Arab separatists have also staged attacks in Iran.

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

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.

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

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia have attacked ships they say have links to Israel in the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

US forces have come under attack from Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over Washington’s backing of Israel and have carried out their own retaliatory air strikes. REUTERS, AFP