The explosions took place at a commemoration for Qassim Suleimani, the top commander killed by a U.S. drone strike four years ago
\nKerman
\nA pair of explosions on Wednesday at a commemoration for Iran\u2019s former top military general Qassim Suleimani killed at least 103 people and wounded another 171, according to Iranian officials. The blasts sowed fear and grief in Iran and heightened tensions in the broader region even further a day after an explosion killed several Hamas officials in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon.
\nIranian officials told state media that a pair of bombs placed in bags along the road toward the cemetery in Kerman, Iran, had exploded as a procession of people was on its way there to commemorate the four-year anniversary of General Suleimani\u2019s assassination by the United States. The officials said the bags appeared to have been detonated via remote control, leaving bodies in pieces on the ground.
\nGiven the sheer scale of the blasts, which state media described as a terrorist attack, the death toll was likely to rise.
\nVideos and photos of the explosions\u2019 aftermath on state media showed widespread carnage and chaos, with sirens blaring and the injured \u2014 among them children \u2014 collapsing to the ground. Bloodied, several of the wounded screamed, \u201cGod help us. Everyone is killed.\u201d
\nJust before the explosions, videos showed a dense crowd of thousands walking along a road lined with food and drink stalls and flags as a prayer from the Quran played from speakers. Then a huge blast rocked the area. The air filled with screams, and people scattered in all directions, videos showed.
\n\u201cUnfortunately many of the injured people are in critical condition,\u201d said Babak Yektaparast, the spokesman for the country\u2019s emergency relief operations. He said all medical facilities in the province of Kerman were on standby to treat patients and emergency airplanes were being deployed for medical evacuations to hospitals in Tehran.
\nThe head of Iran\u2019s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, said all the country\u2019s intelligence, security and military organs were being enlisted to determine who was behind the explosions.
\nIran\u2019s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, told state television that most of the casualties were from the second explosion, which followed minutes after the first, as crowds had gathered to help the injured. He said the situation in the city of Kerman was now under the control of security and military.
\n\u201cWe will God willingly deliver a big slap to those responsible for this terrorist attack,\u201d said Mr. Vahidi. \u201cThey are mistaken to think our resolve will be broken by such cowardly attacks.\u201d
\nThe explosions came four years after an American drone strike assassinated General Suleimani, the longtime commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps\u2019 powerful Quds Force, at Baghdad airport.
\nGeneral Suleimani had been hailed in Iran and in parts of the wider region as a hero for building and arming a Tehran-led network of regional proxy militias that countered the United States and Israel across the Middle East, and he continues to enjoy near-mythic status among pro-government Iranians. His funeral in 2020 drew more than a million mourners, according to official estimates. Every year, on the anniversary of his assassination, some Iranians hold processions and ceremonies in his honor.
\nBy cultivating close personal ties with the leaders of partners across the region, the Arabic-speaking General Suleimani became the face of Iran\u2019s Shiite axis of influence, which reshaped Middle East geopolitics for years to come. The Syrian and Iraqi militias he helped establish also played a critical role in defeating the Islamic State, the extremist group that overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in the mid-2010s.
\nThe regional allies General Suleimani armed and funded also included Hamas, the military and political group that controls Gaza, as well as Hezbollah, the armed political party that dominates much of Lebanon. Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces on Lebanon\u2019s southern border even as Hamas battles Israel in Gaza.
\nThe identities of those who died in Iran on Wednesday were not yet known.
\nSome Iranians on social media were blaming the government and local security officials for failing to secure such a high-profile event. During the funeral ceremony for General Suleimani in 2020, a stampede along the same road as Wednesday\u2019s explosions killed 60 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The explosions took place at a commemoration for Qassim Suleimani, the top commander killed by a U.S. drone strike four years ago Kerman A pair of explosions on Wednesday at a commemoration for Iran\u2019s former top military general Qassim Suleimani killed at least 103 people and wounded another 171, according to Iranian officials. The blasts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-378598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n