At least 20 people were Wednesday killed by two explosions near the tomb of Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his assassination, state media say.
State broadcaster Irib said another 60 people were wounded by the blasts during a ceremony near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque in the city of Kerman.
Kerman province’s emergency services chief said they were caused by bombs.
A video circulated online appeared to show several bodies on the ground.
“The blasts were caused by terrorist attacks,” state media quoted a local official in the Kerman province as saying.
The semi-official Nournews had said earlier that “several gas canisters exploded on the road leading to the cemetery”.
State TV showed Red Crescent rescuers attending to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s death. Some Iranian news agencies said at least 50 people were wounded.
“Our rapid response teams are evacuating the injured… But there are waves of crowds blocking roads,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent told state TV.
Soleimani, once Iran’s top military general, was assassinated in a US drone strike during a visit to Iraq in 2020 to meet then-prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
The drone strike caused a major diplomatic crisis between the US and Iran, leading to retaliatory rocket strikes against US military sites in Iraq and pushing the two countries to the brink of war.
More than a million people took to the streets for the funeral – leading to a stampede in which 56 mourners were killed.
By Agencies
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