Iranian state media reported two explosions in the city of Kerman, where the former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander is buried.
Local officials say more than 70 people have been killed at a cemetery in Iran where a ceremony was being held to mark the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani, the Reuters news agency has reported.
State media reports added there were two explosions at the site in the city of Kerman where the former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander is buried.
Hundreds of people had reportedly gathered at the site.
There are conflicting reports about the number of people that have been killed. Local officials in the Kerman region have told Reuters more than 70 people have been killed.
Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for Iran’s emergency services, was reported later as saying 73 people had been killed and 170 injured.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency has reported at least 25 people died, and a further 40 people have been wounded.
An Iranian official described the explosions as “terrorist attacks”, state media reported.
It comes a day after Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al Arouri died in an explosion in Beirut.
Soleimani, once Iran’s top military general, was assassinated in a US drone strike during a visit to Iraq in 2020 to meet then-prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
The drone strike caused a major diplomatic crisis between the US and Iran, leading to retaliatory rocket strikes against US military sites in Iraq and pushing the two countries to the brink of war.
More than a million people took to the streets for the funeral – leading to a stampede in which 56 mourners were killed.
Having served in Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani became one of the country’s top commanders, often touted as Iran’s second most powerful figure, behind only Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei,
He was the commander of the Quds Force – an IRGC division responsible for spying and military operations outside of Iran.
Soleimani was regarded as the mastermind of Iran’s military operations in Iraq and Syria.
He was also regarded as influential in the development of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” – categorised as the “Axis of Evil” by Western officials.
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Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
