On the fourth anniversary of the influential Iranian General Ghassem Soleimani’s death, over 80 people were killed in his hometown of Kerman near the mausoleum on Wednesday in two massive explosions. Iran’s government called it a terrorist attack. The German government and the EU condemned the attack as an act of terror. It was the deadliest attack in the approximately 45-year history of the Islamic Republic. Now ISIS terrorists have claimed responsibility for the act.
Prior to this, Iran’s leadership strongly condemned the attack. Religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi pledged a decisive response. “With God’s permission, the hand of divine retribution will appear at the right time and place,” Raisi wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Interior Minister Ahmad Wahidi released findings from the initial investigations after visiting the attack sites. Among other things, the remnants of the two explosive devices that detonated within minutes of each other were examined.
