Over 100 Killed in Iran Blasts at Qassim Suleimani Memorial
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The risk of war between Israel and Hamas has increased significantly following the airstrike on the outskirts of Beirut Lebanon’s capital, and a subsequent explosion in Iran that killed at least 103 people on January 3 (local time).
Foreign media reported that two bombs exploded at 20-minute intervals from around 3 p.m. at the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Kerman, Kerman Province, about 509 miles southeast of Tehran, Iran’s capital, killing at least 103 people and injuring at least 211.
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◇ At least 103 dead, 211 injured in bomb explosion at cemetery during memorial service for Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander
Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei: “Disaster will face a harsh response”…President Raisi: “Perpetrators and leaders will be punished”
The number of casualties increased as bombs exploded in a situation where tens of thousands of mourners gathered near the cemetery to attend the 4th-anniversary memorial service for Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who was assassinated in a U.S. drone attack at Baghdad airport in Iraq on January 3, 2020.
The first explosion occurred about 0.43 miles away from the grave of Commander Soleimani, and the second occurred about 0.62 miles away from the grave while mourners were evacuating to the west along Shohada Street, according to the Associated Press. The second explosion was used by armed forces to target responding paramedics and cause more casualties.
Iranian government officials said the bombs appear to have been in bags placed along the road leading to the cemetery and detonated by remote control, according to the New York Times (NYT).
The AP evaluated that the human casualties on this day appear to be the most lethal military attack targeting Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iranian authorities said the 4th would be a ‘day of national mourning’, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei vowed retaliation.
Khamenei emphasized in a statement on the day that “such a disaster will inevitably face a harsh response” and “this is the will of God,” according to the Iranian state-run IRNA news agency.
President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran also emphasized, “Without a doubt, the perpetrators and leaders of this vile act will soon be revealed and punished.”
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◇ Possible culprits behind the incident include Sunni extremist groups and exiled organizations
Experts: “Characteristics of terrorism…Not Israel’s style of precise attacks on scientists, senior officials, and facilities, not civilians”
The AP explained that Iran has several enemies that could be behind this attack, including exiled organizations, armed groups, and countries. Sunni extremist groups like the Islamic State (IS) have carried out large-scale attacks in Shia-majority Iran, killing civilians, but such incidents have not occurred in relatively peaceful Kerman.
Large-scale anti-government protests have been ongoing in recent years, triggered by incidents such as the suspicious death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, who was taken away by police for not properly wearing a hijab last September. Also, organizations that have been exiled since the Islamic Revolution have carried out attacks within Iran.
Analysts say that this attack has the characteristics of terrorism, according to the NYT. Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group (ICG), said that this attack does not match the usual way Israel attacks Iran. Israel tends to precisely attack individuals like nuclear scientists and senior security officials or facilities like nuclear complexes, but they have never attacked ordinary civilians.
Israel has attacked Iran to thwart its nuclear program, but it has carried out targeted assassinations, not mass bombing, according to AP. It is less likely that Israel, which has been supporting Palestinian armed group Hamas, Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels against Iran for decades, carried out this attack.
◇ The possibility of Israel being behind the incident increases the risk of war in the Gaza Strip spreading to Lebanon and Iran
President Raisi: “The U.S. and Israeli regimes will pay a high price”
However, this explosion is intertwined with an incident the day before, in which a drone, likely backed by Israel, attacked a Hamas office on the outskirts of Beirut, killing Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau and considered the third in command of Hamas, and six others, increasing the risk of war in the Gaza Strip spreading to Lebanon and Iran.
While Khamenei did not specify the ‘malicious and criminal enemies’ who caused this incident, President Raisi warned, “We tell the criminal U.S. and Zionist (Israeli) regimes that you will pay a very high price for the crimes you have committed, and you will regret it,” according to the NYT.
This suggests a retaliatory attack against the U.S. and Israel. Iran has previously fired 12 ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Iraq on the day the five-day funeral for Soleimani ended.
Houthi rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam did not point out the culprits behind this explosion but tried to associate it with Iran’s support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance forces, according to AP.
By. Man Joo Ha
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