Islamic State claims responsibility for Iran attack

Families of victims of the explosions gather at the courtyard of a hospital in the city of Kerman, about 800 km southeast of the capital Tehran on January 3, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and first Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber vowed revenge on Thursday for explosions that killed at least 84 at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone in Iraq in 2020.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier, a senior official in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration said the blasts appeared to represent “a terrorist attack” of the type carried out in the past by Islamic State militants.

Iranian authorities on Thursday revised down an earlier toll from the explosions to 84.

Editorial | Terror in Iran: On the blasts in Iran’s Kerman and the impact 

“A very strong retaliation will be handed to them on the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani,” Mr. Mokhber told reporters at a hospital were some of the wounded were receiving treatment for the bloodiest attack since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

‘Cowardly act’

In a statement, Iran’s powerful Guards described Wednesday’s attack as a cowardly act “aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation’s deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic”.

The Guards also said the attack “strengthens the resolve to decisively and justly punish the perpetrators”.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the “heinous and inhumane crime”, and Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, vowed revenge for the twin bombings.

However, second-rung officials blamed the U.S. and Israel for the attacks.