The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for a pair of explosions in Iran that killed at least 89 people during commemorations for a former Iranian commander slain four years ago in a U.S. air strike, as the interior minister said on January 5 a number of suspects had been arrested over the attacks.
In a statement on Telegram, Islamic State said two of its members "activated their explosives vests" at a gathering in the southeastern city of Kerman marking the anniversary of the death of Qasem Soleimani, a former commander of the elite Quds Force.
The incident has intensified fears of widening conflict in the region as Israel continues its war against the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Yemeni-based Huthi rebels also allied with Iran continue their attacks on Red Sea commercial shipping.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state TV that a number of suspects had been arrested.
"Our country's capable intelligence agencies have found very good clues regarding elements involved in the terrorist explosions in Kerman and a section of those who had a role in this incident have been arrested," he said.
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Deadly Blasts In Iran Strike Memorial For Slain General Soleimani
Iranian officials tried on January 5 to link Israel and the United States to the attack, seeking to intertwine the assault with wider Middle East tensions from the Israel-Hamas war.
While speaking to a mass funeral for the victims, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, sought to make the link without offering evidence for their claims. The gathered crowd shouted: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
The United States rejected suggestions that either Israel or Washington was behind the blasts.
Raisi has vowed that the perpetrators "of this cowardly act will soon be identified and punished for their heinous act by the capable security and law enforcement forces."
During a visit to a hospital treating some of the injured, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber said "a very strong retaliation will be handed to [the perpetrators] on the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the blasts, while the UN Security Council said they were "reprehensible." A statement from the Security Council "condemned in the strongest terms the cowardly terrorist attack in the city of Kerman."
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.
Considered at the time to be one of the most powerful men in Iran and the architect of Tehran's foreign policy in the region, Soleimani was killed in what the United States called a "defensive" drone strike while he was traveling in a two-car convoy near Baghdad's international airport early on January 3, 2020.
The Quds Force is the elite foreign arm of the IRGC and has been declared a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.