At least 20 people were killed in Iran Wednesday as two explosions in quick succession struck a crowd marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Soleimani, reported state television, which quoted a local official as saying the blasts near the general’s grave were a “terrorist attack”.
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The incident took place near the grave of the head of foreign operations of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the Saheb al-Zaman mosque in the southern city of Kerman, state television said.
“The incident is a terrorist attack,” Rahman Jalali, the deputy governor of Kerman province where Soleimani is buried, told the television.
Shortly before, the television had reported two blasts near the mosque in quick succession. There was no immediate word on the cause of the blasts.
Images on state television showed several ambulances and rescue personnel in the area.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that 30 people were also wounded in the explosions.
Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East.
He was killed in a US drone strike just outside Baghdad airport and remains a revered figure in Iran.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
