3 January 2024
Two bombs in quick succession struck a crowd commemorating slain general Qasem Soleimani on the anniversary of his killing on Wednesday, claiming at least 103 lives, said an AFP report citing Iranian state media.
The blasts came with tensions running high in the Middle East a day after Hamas senior political leader Saleh al-Aruri was killed in a Beirut drone strike which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel.
The blasts stuck near the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in Kerman, Soleimani’s southern hometown where he is buried, as supporters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of his death in a US drone strike just outside Baghdad airport.
Kerman’s deputy governor said the explosions were a “terrorist attack”. At least 170 people were also wounded in the bombings, state media said.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, quoting informed sources, said “two bags carrying bombs went off” at the site. “The perpetrators … of this incident apparently detonated the bombs by remote control,” Tasnim added.
Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East. Declared a “living martyr” by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while still alive, Soleimani was widely regarded as a hero. In the eyes of many Iranians, his military and strategic prowess were instrumental in warding off the multi-ethnic disintegration of neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan as well as Syria and Iraq.
Long seen as a deadly adversary by the US and its allies, Soleimani was one of the most important powerbrokers across the region, setting Iran’s political and military agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
On days after his death in 2020 and leading up to his funeral in Kerman, millions turned out to mourn in a show of national unity.
