Two explosions set off minutes apart rocked a ceremony honouring slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani killed at least 103 people in Kerman about 510 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, according to Iranian authorities.
Soleimani was killed in 2020 in Iraq by a US airstrike launched by Donald Trump’s administration. He was an extremely influential general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for what Iranian state media called a “terroristic” attack shortly after the blasts in Kerman, about 820 kilometres (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
Footage suggested that the second blast occurred some 15 minutes after the first. A delayed second explosion is often used by militants to target emergency personnel responding to the scene and inflict more casualties.
While Israel has carried out attacks in Iran over its nuclear program, it has conducted targeted assassinations, not mass-casualty bombings. Sunni extremist groups including the Islamic State group have conducted large-scale attacks in the past that killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran, though not in relatively peaceful Kerman.
Iran also has seen mass protests in recent years, including those over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022. The country also has been targeted by exile groups in attacks dating back to the turmoil surrounding its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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