The ceremony to commemorate commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020, was being held on Wednesday where a blast killed 100 people. The memorial was taking place in the southeastern city of Kerman. Iranian state television reported a first and then a second blast after 20 minutes during a crowded fourth-anniversary event at the cemetery. Some of the injured are in critical condition and there is a possibility of the death toll rising, IRNA reported. The officials are calling it a terror attack and nobody is taking responsibility for the blasts. Iranian Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi said that 211 people had been injured.
Qassem Soleimani’s death
Soleimani was killed by a US strike ordered by Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport four years ago on 3rd January 2020. He was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination by the U.S. in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations. Soleimani was on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and had just left his plane, which arrived in Iraq from Lebanon or Syria. There are multiple theories about his death. In a 2017 meeting, President Trump had expressed a desire to target Soleimani with then National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
The explosion
It is said that at least one of the blasts was caused by a bomb. In addition to that, another state television channel reported that the first explosion near the grave of Soleimani was caused by a bomb placed inside a suitcase inside a Peugeot 405 car, and it appeared that the bomb had been remotely detonated. The first explosion was 2,300 feet (700 meters) from Soleimani’s grave, and the second was 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) away as pilgrims visited the site. The first explosion happened at 3:00 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) during an interview with Iran’s state news channel IRIB. The second, more deadly blast took place 20 minutes later when other pilgrims came to help the injured, said Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi.
Large crowds were running in the area after the explosion as shown in the videos by the Iranian media. Many footages also showed bloodied bodies being transported from the scene, and ambulances leaving the site through large crowds.
It is a terrorist attack
“I think it’s just based on the MO it does look like a terrorist attack; the type of thing we’ve seen ISIS do in the past. And as far as we’re aware, that’s kind of I think our going assumption at the moment,” an official said. The president of Iran is blaming Israel for the attack and says that they will pay a ‘heavy price’.
By: Gursharan Kaur