Middle East tensions ratchet up: 73 dead as blasts rock ceremony for slain Iran general
Explosions at an event honouring a prominent Iranian general who died in a US air strike in 2020 have killed at least 73 people and injured 170 others, state-run media in Iran reported on Wednesday.
A senior official called the blasts a “terroristic” attack, without elaborating on who could be behind them, amid wider tensions in the Middle East over Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The state-run Irna news agency quoted Dr Mohammad Saberi, the head of emergency services in Kerman, where the explosions occurred, as the source of the casualty figures.
The blasts struck an event marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
The explosions occurred near his grave site in Kerman, about 510 miles (820km) south-east of the capital, Tehran.
Authorities said some people were injured while fleeing after the blasts.
Gen Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national hero among supporters of Iran’s theocracy.
However, to American officials, he represented a deadly foe during the Iraq War, one who helped arm militants with penetrating roadside bombs that killed and maimed US troops.
Kerman’s deputy governor, Rahman Jalali, called the attack “terroristic”, without elaborating.
Iran has multiple foes who could be behind the assault, including exile groups, militant organisations and state actors.
Iran has supported Hamas as well as the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Gen Soleimani’s death has drawn large processions in the past.
At his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 others injured as thousands thronged the procession.
Associated Press Reporters