89 people were killed and 284 injured after two explosions rocked Kerman city in southeastern Iran on Wednesday, near the cemetery where Iranian top commander Qasem Soleimani is buried, as thousands held a commemorative ceremony on the fourth anniversary of his assassination. Tens were injured in a stampede as people panicked after the blasts.
“Our country’s intelligence systems, with the necessary capabilities, found very good clues about the people involved in the terrorist explosions in Kerman, and some of those involved in the incident were arrested,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said.
Vahidi did not specify details about the number of suspects arrested and said that further information will be provided by the intelligence services.
In a Thursday statement on its Telegram propaganda channel, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and said they were carried out by two of its members who detonated explosive belts among the crowd.
On Friday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was in Kerman to attend the burial processions of the victims, according to IRNA.
Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the IRGC, was killed in a US airstrike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020, alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
The strike was ordered by former US President Donald Trump in response to the constant attacks by IRGC-allied groups on the US embassy in Baghdad and military bases housing coalition and US forces across the country.
