Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Terror Attack In Iran
The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran. The explosions killed close to 100 people on Wednesday in Kerman. IS said two of its members detonated explosive belts in the crowd.
The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran that killed close to 100 people on Wednesday in Kerman.
In a statement posted on its affiliate Telegram channels, IS said two of its members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered at the cemetery in the southeastern Iranian city on Wednesday to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Qasem Soleimani.
REUTERS
The former chief commander of the elite Quds force, the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone.
What IS said
IS identified the two attackers as Omar al-Mowahed and Seif-Allah al-Mujahed. IS, a Sunni militant group, also used disparaging language when discussing Shiites, which it views as heretics.
Experts who follow the group confirmed that the statement, circulated online among jihadists, came from the extremists, who likely hope to take advantage of the chaos gripping the region amid Israel's war on Hamas.
REUTERS
Who carried out the attack?
The statement did not mention which regional arm of the extremists carried out the attack as compared to other claims in the past. But Aaron Y Zelin, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that some previous claims have not specified the regional arm and that the latest claim came directly from an account associated with the group.
AFP
The Islamic State group previously claimed a June 2017 attack in Tehran on parliament and a mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 50. The group has claimed two other assaults as well.
How Iran reacted
Tehran has vowed revenge for the bloodiest such attack since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"A very strong retaliation will be meted out to them by the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani," Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber said in Kerman.
AFP
Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps described the attacks as a cowardly act "aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation's deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic".
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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