DUBAI – At least 50 people were killed and dozens wounded after two explosions were set off near a cemetery in Iran where a ceremony was being held to mark the death anniversary of the country’s top commander, Iranian state media said on Jan 3.
Iranian state television reported a first and then a second explosion during the ceremony in the south-eastern city of Kerman.
The semi-official Nournews said “several gas canisters exploded on the road leading to the cemetery”.
Another semi-official news agency – Tasnim News – quoted the deputy governor of Kerman calling the explosions a “terror attack”.
State TV showed Red Crescent rescuers attending to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Qassem Soleimani’s death.
The military officer was part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and would later rise up in the ranks, becoming commander of the Quds Force, a military division specialising in military intelligence.
Labelled a terrorist by the United States in 2005, Soleimani was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, during a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.
Some Iranian news agencies said at least 50 people were wounded.
“Our rapid response teams are evacuating the injured… But there are waves of crowds blocking roads,” Mr Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent told state TV. REUTERS
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