by The Islamic State on Thursday claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, a day earlier, during a procession in memory of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, according to a post on the extremist group’s official Telegram account. .
The extremist group called the attack a “double martyrdom operation” and described how two militants approached a ceremony at General Suleimani’s grave and detonated explosive belts tied to their bodies “near the grave of the hypocritical leader.”
The general, a widely revered and feared Iranian military officer who was the architect of an Iran-led and funded alliance of Shiite groups across the Middle East, was killed four years ago in a U.S. drone strike.
The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim organization, sees its mission as killing apostate Muslims, including Shiites. Iran, a Shiite-majority country, is run by a theocratic government in which Shiite clerics are in charge.
In a statement, the Islamic State identified the two attackers as Omar al-Mowahid and Sayefulla al-Mujahid. The group is made up of local affiliates throughout the Muslim world, but did not specify which regional organization was behind the attacks.
The bombing in Iran was the latest bloody episode in the Islamic State’s attacks on Iran, which it views as an irredeemable sectarian enemy, one that, along with a U.S.-led coalition, helped defeat the group in Syria and Iraq. It was General Suleimani who built a network of Shiite militias there to repel the group and personally led efforts to combat it.
The Islamic State, whose affiliate in Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan, has repeatedly threatened Iran for what it says is its polytheism and apostasy, has claimed responsibility for several previous attacks about Iran.
The most recent occurred in October 2022, when a gunman delicate 13 people at a shrine in the city of Shiraz. A statement from the Islamic State that claimed responsibility for that attack said it was aimed at killing Shiites, framing the shootings as a continuation of an ancient clash between Sunnis and Shiites, whose religious schism dates back to a 7th-century dispute over the legitimate heir of the Prophet. Muhammad.
Thursday’s statement used the same derogatory term for Shiites, roughly translated as “rejecters” or “infidels of rejection,” as in the 2022 statement.
Shooting continued in Shiraz twin attacks in June 2017 in Tehran, where gunmen opened fire inside Parliament and suicide bombers simultaneously struck near the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s former supreme leader and founder of Iran’s clerical state, killing 17 people. The group also claimed responsibility for a September 2018 attack in the city. of Ahvaz, where gunmen opened fire during a military parade, killing 25 people.
Iranian authorities had also previously announced that they had thwarted at least a dozen more Islamic State attacks.
Initially, some Iranian leaders appeared to blame Israel for the attack, stoking fears that the war in Gaza – in which Israel is fighting Hamas, a Palestinian ally of Iran – would expand into a regional conflict. But Western officials had cast doubt on that theory, saying that although Israel is believed to have regularly carried out covert operations in Iran, they have typically been operations directed against specific individuals, Iranian scientists or officials, or attacks to destroy nuclear facilities. or weapons.
U.S. officials said it was unlikely that the Islamic State’s intention was to frame Israel for the bombings or trigger a broader war, as had initially been feared. Instead, he was probably taking advantage of an opportunity to attack his old enemy. Iran on Thursday held a day of national mourning to honor the victims of the two explosions, which occurred not only at a tense time in the Middle East, but also at a highly symbolic moment. day for some Iranians: the fourth anniversary of the death of General Suleimani. General Suleimani, the powerful military leader considered an evil force in the West, is revered among many Iranians, especially those who support the government.
Iranian authorities had estimated the death toll from Wednesday’s two explosions at 103. But the Minister of the Interior, Ahmad Vahidi, said Thursday that 84 people had been killed, according to Tasnim, a semi-official news agency.
During a visit to a hospital treating people injured in the explosions, Vahidi said the death toll could rise again due to the serious condition of some of the wounded. A total of 284 people were injured in the attack, including 220 who are still hospitalized in Kerman, many of whom are in stable condition or requiring minor surgeries, he said, according to Tasnim.
Iran’s leaders have vowed to punish the perpetrators.
“The blind and spiteful act was to induce insecurity in the country and take revenge for the love and devotion of the great nation of Iran, especially the jealous young generation, towards the martyr Qassim Suleimani,” read a statement issued Thursday by the Islamic Revolutionary. Guard Corps, according to Fars, another semi-official news agency. The Revolutionary Guard Corps is the powerful military security apparatus of which General Suleimani was a senior officer and headed the elite Quds Force, which was in charge of external operations.
Mick Mulroy, who served as a Pentagon official in the Trump administration, said there was “no love lost” between the Islamic State and Iran. “But it seems like a strange time to launch an attack with the current conflict in Gaza and unified Muslim support for the Palestinians,” he said.
Although the Islamic State did not specify an affiliate behind the attack, Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a New York-based security consulting firm, said he suspected the Islamic State’s Khorasan affiliate, also known as ISIS- K, as probable author.
“ISIS-K has demonstrated intent and capability to attack targets within Iran itself,” Clarke said. “ISIS-K wants to attack Iran, because Tehran is the most prominent Shiite power and the wrath of ISIS-K’s highly sectarian agenda. More than other branches of ISIS, ISIS-K propaganda continually focuses on denigrating Shiites as apostates.”
Clarke said the attack on the commemoration ceremony, a highly symbolic and sectarian target given General Suleimani’s stature as architect of the Tehran-led Shiite axis in the region, fit with the group’s method.
The Tasnim news agency reported that the first explosion occurred at 3:04 pm on Wednesday, as people gathered on the road leading to General Suleimani’s tomb. The second explosion occurred 13 minutes later, he added.
The Islamic State’s claims of responsibility contrasted with initial Iranian reports that the bombs had been placed in two bags and detonated remotely along the road to the Kerman cemetery, where thousands of people participating in the commemoration were walking.
Another semi-official news agency, IRNA, quoted a police spokesman as saying that three officers had died in the explosions while trying to help other victims.
The commemoration ceremony was held to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of General Suleimani at Baghdad airport in January 2020. Similar ceremonies are held annually in honor of the general.
Leily Nikounazar, Julian E. Barnes, Ronen Bergman and David E. Sanger contributed with reports.
