Over 100 Dead in Bomb Explosions Near Iran's Quds Commander Soleimani's Tomb

General Soleimani was in charge of an elite division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps before he was killed on January 3, 2020, by a US airstrike.

Explosions have been reported in the Iranian city of Kerman, where IRGC General Qasem Soleimani is buried. The cause of the explosions is unknown but at least 103 people are reportedly dead and 141 wounded.

Local authorities have already dubbed the explosions a terrorist attack. According to reports, two bombs were planted in bags near the cemetery and were activated remotely.

Iranian state television also announced that "following the terrorist incident in Kerman, the government declared tomorrow (Thursday) a day for public mourning across the country."

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi vowed to bring the masterminds and perpetrators of the “heinous” terrorist attack to justice.

The president further declared that the enemies of his country should know that such acts of terror cannot break the Iranian people’s determination to protect their values.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi over the terrorist attack.

The killing of civilians who visited the cemetery is "shocking in its cruelty and cynicism," Putin said, adding that Moscow condemns terrorism in all forms.

While it is not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombing in Kerman, former Jordanian senator and international legal and human rights commissioner expert Dr. Muhannad Alazzeh told Sputnik that “many people, groups and militias” in the region “have more than reason to commit this terrorist attack in Iran.”

“Soleimani played a dominant role in abolishing different fundamentalist groups in Syria, also in Iraq he played the main role in supporting Shia’s militias against ISIS*,” he said. “So in this regard, it is highly expected that this attack is already scheduled even before October 7 since it took place on Soleimani’s death anniversary.”

Dr. Alazzeh also voiced his doubts about allegations of Israel’s possible involvement in this terrorist plot, and regarded the odds of some kind of overt aggressive response from Iran as unlikely.

In January 2020, the US assassinated General Soleimani and other high-ranking military officers in Baghdad, citing alleged responsibility for the attack on the US Embassy in Iraq – a claim that was not proved.

In response, Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US bases in Iraq, which resulted in casualties among American military personnel.

*ISIS, also known as ISIL/Daesh, is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia.