At least 70 people were killed and more than 170 injured by two explosions this Wednesday, January 3, in the cemetery of the Iranian city of Kerman, where the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was commemorated. This is considered a terrorist act by the Iranian authorities, the official Irna agency reported. The explosions occurred at a time of great tension in the Middle East, a day after the death of Hamas's number two in a drone attack in Beirut.
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Iranian state media reported on Wednesday, January 3, that two explosions had gone off near the cemetery in the southern city of Kerman, during a ceremony commemorating the 2020 death of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, considered in Iran a martyr of the revolution.
It happened near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque in Kerman, Soleimani's hometown in the south of the country, where he is buried, as his supporters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of his death in a US drone strike on outside the airport in Baghdad, capital of Iraq.
The Iranian government considers it a terrorist attack. The counting of the victims has barely begun but it is known that so far it has left at least 70 dead and 170 injured, according to Babak Yektaparast, spokesman for Iran's emergency organization.
“The explosions were caused by terrorist attacks,” state media quoted a local official in Kerman province as saying.
However, the semi-official outlet Nournews had previously said that “several gas canisters exploded on the road leading to the cemetery.”
State television showed Red Crescent rescuers tending to the wounded at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani's death.
“Our rapid response teams are evacuating the injured… But there are waves of crowds blocking the roads,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent, told state television.
News in development…
With EFE and Reuters
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