Bahram Eynollahi, Iran’s health minister, was quoted by Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as saying 95 people were killed and 211 were injured. An earlier toll provided by officials, of 103 killed, was lowered because names were repeated on a list of victims, he said.
The deputy governor of Kerman, the slain general’s hometown, said the incident was a “terrorist attack,” according to IRNA. The explosions occurred about a half-mile from Soleimani’s burial place, on a road to the graveyard and roughly 20 minutes apart, the agency reported.
Before the blasts, the state-run live broadcast had shown thousands of mourners filling the street, moving calmly in a procession. After the attack, it broadcast video of people running frantically and men wearing emergency medical technician uniforms surging into the crowd.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Iran has faced numerous attacks in the past, including from separatist groups and Sunni extremists. A 2017 attack in Tehran claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group targeted the parliament building and the mausoleum of the leader of the nation’s Islamic revolution, killing at least 12 people.
Israel, Tehran’s archenemy, has assassinated nuclear scientists in Iran and attacked nuclear facilities.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules established by the Biden administration, suggested that the bombing in Iran was the work of an insurgent group such as the Islamic State.
“Based on the [modus operandi] it does look like a terrorist attack and the type of thing we’ve seen ISIS do in the past,” the official said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “And as far as we’re aware that’s kind of, I think, our going assumption at the moment.”
Iranian leaders Wednesday vowed retaliation against “enemies” but did not accuse anyone directly for the attack.
“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,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a statement. “This tragedy will be met with a strong response.”
In a televised speech Wednesday evening, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi referred frequently to the United States and Israel as he condemned the “heinous” killings but also refrained from explicitly blaming anyone for the blasts.
“The criminals who have the blood of the innocent people on their hands, they can’t even tolerate his burial site,” he said. The state news agency reported that Raisi had postponed a planned trip to Turkey on Thursday because of the attacks.
Soleimani headed the Quds Force, an expeditionary unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In that role, he oversaw a network of Iranian-supported proxy groups across the Middle East that helped project Tehran’s military and political power in places such as Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
He was killed Jan. 3, 2020, by a U.S. drone that struck a two-car convoy carrying Soleimani on an access road near Baghdad International Airport. The assassination marked a high point in tensions between Tehran and the Trump administration, which pursued a “maximum pressure” policy against Iran that included the U.S. withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal and Iran’s subsequent increase in its nuclear activities.
Days after Soleimani was killed, Iran launched a missile attack on a U.S.-occupied base in Iraq that injured scores of U.S. troops.
The blasts Wednesday came during another period of rising regional tensions stemming from the war in Gaza. Iranian-backed militant groups in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have staged almost daily attacks in retaliation for Israel’s military offensive, with many of the attacks targeting its principal ally, the United States.
Fahim reported from Istanbul and Morris from Berlin. Missy Ryan contributed to this report.
