Dozens of people have reportedly been killed following explosions at a memorial ceremony in Iran marking the fourth anniversary of the United States killing of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani.
Eyewitnesses described how two explosions took place within 10 minutes during a procession near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque in the city of Kerman, around 510 southeast of the capital Tehran. An unnamed Iranian official told state news agency IRNA that devices "were detonated remotely by terrorists," Reuters reported.
Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for Iran's emergency services, said 73 people had been killed and 170 injured, while state television later said 103 people had been killed.
Suleimani was the chief commander of Iran's Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Tehran retaliated to his assassination in 2020 by attacking two Iraq military bases where U.S. troops were based.
No group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's blasts, which come amid tensions between Iran and Israel, along with its ally, the United States, over the war on Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza, which followed the October 7 attacks on southern Israel by the Palestinian militants.
Stoking the situation in the region was the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, a deputy leader of the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, in an apparent Israeli drone strike in Lebanon, although Israel has denied responsibility.
"The attacks in Iran are symbolic, but they point to the way in which domestic instability in Iran connects with broader regional instability amid the Iran-Israel proxy war," said Matt Gertken, chief geopolitical strategist for BCA Research, which reports on the Middle East.
"Iran condoned the Hamas attacks, which drove a wedge between Israel and the Gulf Arab states, and condoned the Houthi attacks on international shipping, as ways of warning the U.S. to restrain Israel," he told Newsweek, referring to the Iranian-linked militants based in Yemen.
Some Iranian officials sought to blame Israel for Wednesday's blasts. Former Iranian Health Ministry official Kianush Jahanpur wrote on X, "the answer to this crime should only be in Tel Aviv, Haifa, etc and that "the crime of the Zionist regime and its supporters should be factored separately."
While Israel has carried out attacks in Iran over its nuclear program, it has conducted targeted assassinations, not mass casualty bombings, the Associated Press reported.
Tehran has many foes who could be behind the assault, including exile groups, militant organizations and state actors. Sunni extremist groups such as the Islamic State have previously conducted attacks that have killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran.
Social media users have speculated as to the cause of the blasts with Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad suggesting that it may have been orchestrated by the ruling regime "to play victim as they have failed to retaliate against the blows from Israel."
"We have seen this play out before. The regime uses civilians as human shields to mobilize public opinion against Israel," she wrote on X.
Newsweek reached out to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for comment.
Update 1/3/24, 12:18 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
