Iran’s Intelligence Ministry says two people were killed in a shoot-out and several others detained during a sweep to arrest suspects in connection with the deadly suicide bombings earlier this month in the southern city of Kerman that killed at least 91 people.
The ministry said in a statement on January 19 that two Islamic State (IS) group suspects were killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces. The ministry said the "foreign terrorists" had planned a new attack targeting a law enforcement center in Kerman.
Police have been hunting for suspects in the attack since IS claimed that two of its members detonated explosive belts in a crowd gathered for a memorial ceremony near the tomb of Qasem Soleimani, a general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
SEE ALSO: Iran Says Death Toll From Twin Bombings Rises To 91The ministry added in the statement that one of those arrested was Mohammad Omran Tanveer, also known as Abu Omran.
Identified by the Iranian intelligence forces as "an IS emir and bomb-making specialist," Tanveer is linked to Abdullah Tajiki, who the ministry has previously said was the primary architect and supporter of the Kerman bombings.
The ministry said that since it began searching for those behind the bombings, it had captured several IS members connected to Abdul Hakim Touhidi, a commander of the group's terrorist operations, and had foiled a planned terrorist attack near a holy shrine in the outskirts of the city of Mashhad.
The detailed statements from the Intelligence Ministry are unusual and follow heightened criticism of the Islamic republic's security organizations over the bombings, the bloodiest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Soleimani had been part of the Iranian response to IS in Syria, while focusing on keeping embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- an ally of Tehran -- in power.
Soleimani also had extensive ties to proxy groups around the wider Middle East, including Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. He was seen by Washington as the mastermind behind deadly roadside bombings targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Commemorations of Soleimani's death have previously drawn large crowds.
During his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in a procession of thousands of Iranians.