Iran Will 'Respond With Fire and Fury' to Deadly Attack at Soleimani Event

Iran has promised to seek vengeance upon the perpetrator of deadly blasts that have reportedly killed more than 100 people at a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the death of a famed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. strike.

"The fear of the Zionist regime & its puppet terrorist groups of Martyr Soleimani led to another crime in Kerman during his commemoration ceremony," the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said Wednesday in a statement shared with Newsweek and posted on X, formerly Twitter.

"Iran will respond with fire & fury to the orchestrators, perpetrators, & anyone who's aided & abetted in this terrorist attack," the Mission added.

The comments marked the closest Iranian officials have come to directly blaming Israel for the attack at a time when tensions between the two nations have been flaring over the ongoing war in Gaza.

The Mission also shared a letter by Iranian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani and addressed to U.N. Security Council President Nicolas de Rivière and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

In the letter, the Iranian ambassador asserted that "comprehensive investigations are currently underway to identify and apprehend the perpetrators and organizers behind this premeditated and appalling crime," and that Iran "is committed to leveraging all available mechanisms to ensure accountability for those responsible and their accomplices in this heinous terrorist act."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran unequivocally condemns such abhorrent acts of terrorism and remains steadfast in the pursuit of justice for the victims," Iravani said.

He called on the U.N. Security Council to officially condemn the attack and stated that, "as one of the primary victims of terrorism and having directly experienced its catastrophic consequences, the Islamic Republic of Iran remains steadfast in its unwavering commitment to leading the fight against this scourge."

Local emergency services have said that at least 103 people were killed and 211 injured when two explosions occurred in quick succession near the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in Kerman, where a procession of mourners were said to be paying respects to Soleimani, who is buried nearby.

Further details of the attack remain scarce. The semi-official Tasnim News Agency cited sources saying the blast emanated from two remote control-detonated bombs hidden in bags, though this information has yet to be verified by any official accounts.

The attacks come just one day after Hamas political bureau deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated in a large blast in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut amid the group's ongoing war with Israel. Palestinian factions and a number of other supporters abroad, including Iran, blamed Israel for the attack, which neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Iran has extolled Hamas and other Palestinian factions involved in a conflict that began with an October 7 surprise attack against Israel, and has called for an immediate ceasefire to the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) ongoing offensive in Gaza.

Newsweek has reached out to the Iranian Red Crescent Society and the IDF for comment.

Israel has long been known to conduct convert attacks deep behind enemy lines, though such operations have often targeted high-profile individuals or strategic sites. Assassinations of military and scientific personnel and the sabotage of equipment attached to Iran's nuclear program, which Iranian officials have also argued was purely for peaceful purposes, have been widely attributed to Israeli agents or collaborators.

Iran also has a long history of facing deadly attacks by non-state actors, including the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), the rebel People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) and various separatist Arab, Baloch and Kurdish groups. Many of these operations have deliberately targeted soldiers and civilians, as well as symbols of the Islamic Republic government.

Shahin Gobadi, a press spokesperson for PMOI, also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), told Newsweek the group "has not carried out this act in Kerman" as "it undertakes and declares responsibility for any action it carries out," while "bringing any harm to civilians and innocent people is a redline for the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Without naming a specific perpetrator, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also issued strong words in response to the attacks on Wednesday.

"The evil, criminal enemies of the Iranian nation have once again created a tragedy and martyred a large number of our dear people in Kerman in the fragrant atmosphere of the martyrs' tombs in Kerman," Khamenei said, according to his official X account. "The Iranian nation is in grief and many families are mourning the death of their loved ones. The stony-hearted criminals could not tolerate seeing the love and affection of the people for visiting the grave of their great commander, Martyr Qasem Soleimani."

Khamenei threatened "a severe pounding & a deserving retribution" to those behind the attacks.

At the time of his death in January 2020, Soleimani was Iran's most famous military figure, having forged an intricate network of partnerships with actors across the region and beyond over the course of two decades. Members of the so-called "Axis of Resistance" have for years conducted operations against targets associated with the U.S., Israel, Sunni Muslim monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and jihadi militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS).

Soleimani's killing was ordered by then-U.S. President Donald Trump at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran as Iraqi militias and U.S. troops entered into a worsening series of escalations throughout 2019. Iran's immediate response to Soleimani's slaying involved a massive missile barrage against U.S. military positions in neighboring Iraq and vows to expel the U.S. from the region.

Today, U.S. troops again find themselves under regular rocket and drone fire in Iraq and Syria as a result of President Joe Biden's support for Israel in its war in Gaza, threatening further escalations. Meanwhile, another Iran-aligned group, Yemen's Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, continues to challenge a newly formed U.S.-led maritime coalition by attacking ships with alleged ties to Israel in the waters off of Yemen, while at the same time firing missiles and drones against southern Israel.

Addressing the attack in Iran during a press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that U.S. officials "have been following the reports closely" but did not "have any independent information to offer on them."

He stated that "it's too early, at least for us, to be able to say what might have caused" what he referred to as a "horrific explosion" but distanced the U.S. and Israel from the blasts.

"Number one, the United States was not involved in any way and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous," Miller said. "And number two, we have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion."