The terrorist organization claimed responsibility this Thursday, January 4 via Telegram messaging for the double attack which left more than 80 dead and nearly 300 injured the day before during a ceremony honoring General Qassem Soleimani, killed by an American strike in 2020.
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In its message published on Telegram, the Islamic State group indicated that two of its members had “ activated their explosive belt ” between ” of a great gathering of apostates, near the grave of their leader “Qassem Soleimani” yesterday in Kerman, southern Iran “. The jihadist organization, which considers Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, as renegades, included this operation as part of a campaign called “ And kill them wherever you find them ”, according to the press release. A few minutes before the claim, ISIS had released an audio recording of its spokesperson saying that this campaign was being carried out “in support of Muslims wherever they are, particularly in Palestine”.
The attack took place near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque which houses the tomb of General Soleimani killed in January 2020 in an American drone attack in Iraq. Qassem Soleimani was a key figure in the Islamic Republic and one of the country’s most popular figures. Declared a “living martyr” by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while he was still alive, Soleimani was celebrated for his role in the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
An initial toll of more than 100 deaths was revised downwards on Thursday by the head of the country’s emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, who reported 84 people killed and 284 injured. This is the deadliest attack in the country since 1978, when an arson attack killed at least 377 people in a cinema in Abadan, according to Agence France-Presse archives.
The attack having occurred in a very tense regional context since the start of the conflict in October between Israel and Hamas, Iranian officials immediately pointed the finger at Israel and the United States. Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi even said that the Jewish state would pay a high price for its crimes. The US State Department had judged “ absurd » any suggestion of involvement by Washington or Tel Aviv in what “ Looks like a terrorist attack, the kind of thing ISIS has done in the past “, according to a senior American official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel, sworn enemy of Iran, has not commented on the attack. “ We are focused on the fights with Hamas » in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, said Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
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(With AFP)