Key Points
- The explosions occurred at a procession in Iran's city of Kerman for slain general Qasem Soleimani.
- No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Iran's interior minister promised a strong response.
- The US airstrike that killed Soleimani in 2020 and Iran's response brought the two nations close to conflict.
Blasts at an event honouring an Iranian general slain in a United States airstrike in 2020 have killed at least 100 people and wounded 200 others, media reports say.
The two explosions occurred at a ceremony in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman commemorating top commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020, Iranian officials say, blaming unspecified "terrorists".
An unnamed official told state news agency IRNA that "two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman's Martyrs' Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists".
State television said that at least 103 people had been killed and 211 others injured, making it one of the worst such attacks in Iran, which has faced similar incidents in the past from various groups including the self-proclaimed Islamic State group (IS).
Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi condemned the twin blasts that killed at least 103 people in the country's south where crowds gathered to mark the killing of general Qasem Soleimani. Source: AFP / Sare Tajalli
No one has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's blasts.
The government announced that Thursday would be a day of mourning.
US says Israel not behind blasts
The US rejected any suggestion that it or ally Israel was behind deadly blasts in Iran and warned against further escalation after a
"The United States was not involved in any way, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said of Wednesday's violence.
"We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion," he said.
"We do express our sympathies to the victims and their loved ones who died in this horrific explosion," he said.
The blast on the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination comes , in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital Beirut that are a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Iran vows 'strong' response
While the authorities have not publicly assigned blame, Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi vowed a strong response.
"Those who committed these crimes should expect a strong and decisive response by Iran's security forces," Vahidi told state TV, adding that "everything is under control now and calm has been restored".
In 2022, the Sunni Muslim militant group IS claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Iran which killed 15 people.
The US assassination of Soleimani in a drone attack at Baghdad airport and Iran's retaliation by attacking two Iraq military bases that house US troops brought the US and Iran close to full-blown conflict in 2020.
As chief commander of the elite Quds force, the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani ran clandestine operations in other countries and was a key figure in Iran's long-standing campaign to drive US forces out of the Middle East.
Tensions between Iran and Israel, along with the US, have reached a new high over Israel's war on Iranian-backed Hamas militants in Gaza in retaliation for their October 7 attack on southern Israel.
However, there was no indication of any involvement of a foreign state in the explosions at Wednesday's ceremony.
