KERMAN,Iran:Two bombs killed 103 people in Iran on Wednesday, as they commemorated the fourth anniversary of the killing of general Qasem Soleimani by the US, state media reported.
The state television blamed the “terrorist attack” on the heightened tensions in the Middle East, after an Iran-backed Hamas leader was killed by a drone strike in Beirut, which Lebanon accused Israel of carrying out. The bombs went off near the mosque where Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was buried in his hometown of Kerman in southern Iran.
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Supporters of Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike near Baghdad airport, had gathered there to pay tribute to him. Kerman’s deputy governor and Iran’s Tasnim news agency confirmed the attack was “terrorist” and said the bombs were detonated remotely in two bags. The ISNA news agency said the explosions occurred 10 minutes apart. Online videos showed people running away as security forces sealed off the area. State television broadcast images of ambulances and rescuers at the scene.
Soleimani was a key figure in Iran’s foreign operations, leading military campaigns across the Middle East. He was hailed as a “living martyr” by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a hero by many Iranians for his role in fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. He was also credited with preventing the collapse of neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, where he wielded significant influence. He was seen as a mortal enemy by the US and its allies, who accused him of destabilizing the region.
Soleimani’s death in 2020 sparked massive mourning rallies in Iran, where he enjoyed an 83 percent popularity rating, according to a 2018 survey by IranPoll and the University of Maryland. He was more popular than then-president Hassan Rouhani and then-foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
