Two bombs exploded in Iran Wednesday at a commemoration for a top military general and reportedly killed at least 95 people and wounded at least 171 people.
The commemoration was for Qassem Soleimani in Kerman, Iran, and the explosions took place minutes apart “as a procession of people was on its way there to commemorate the four-year anniversary of General Soleimani’s assassination by the United States,” The New York Times reported.
The deputy governor of Kerman called the incident a “terrorist attack,” according to The Washington Post. Authorities believe the death toll could climb higher.
“A terrible sound was heard there, despite all the security and safety measures. We are still investigating,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman Red Crescent Society, told state television, per Reuters.
It was the deadliest attack in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and while no one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosions, “Iran’s leaders vowed to punish those responsible,” per The Associated Press.
Who was Qassem Suleimani?
Qassem Soleimani was the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force and was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020, per AP News.
- He was known as Iran’s “shadow commander” and was considered “the mastermind of Iranian military operations in Iraq and Syria,” CNN reported.
- Soleimani also helped secure Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government after the 2011 Arab Spring protests, per AP.
- Soleimani became more widely known after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the U.S. government called for him to be killed “over his help in arming militants with penetrating roadside bombs that killed and maimed U.S. troops,” per AP.