Terrorist militia IS claims responsibility for attack in Iran
Two explosions occur at a memorial event in Iran. More than 360 people are killed and injured as a result. The terrorist organization Islamic State now claims responsibility for the attack. According to them, suicide bombers carried out the attack.
The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the devastating attack in the Iranian city of Kerman, which left more than 80 dead. The group made the claim via its usual propaganda channels. According to the statement, two attackers detonated their explosive belts during the mourning ceremony on Wednesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Iranian General Ghassem Soleimani.
In the attack near Soleimani's tomb on Wednesday, 84 people were killed and 284 injured in two powerful explosions. The attack occurred as crowds of people were making a pilgrimage through the streets of the provincial capital to the tomb. The German government and the EU condemned the attack as an act of terror. It was the deadliest attack in the Islamic Republic's 45-year history.
Influential hardliners initially blamed Israel for the explosions. There were many reasons to assume "that the Zionists (Israel) were involved in the terrorist explosions", according to an editorial published by the arch-conservative newspaper "Keyhan". The authors demanded swift revenge for the attack. Otherwise, an attack in the capital Tehran could be repeated, the article warned.
IS regards Shiites as apostates
More than a year ago, IS had already claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shia shrine in the cultural metropolis of Shiraz. More than a dozen people were killed in the attack in October 2022. The judiciary then publicly executed two men with Afghan citizenship whom Iran had blamed for the attack.
IS considers the Shia majority in Iran to be apostates of Islam and despises them. The Shia, the smaller of the two major branches of Islam, is the state religion of the Islamic Republic. A regional branch of IS is active in neighboring Afghanistan, where the group wants to establish a "province" called IS-Khorasan near Pakistan.
The city of Kerman is the home of Soleimani, the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) foreign units. The USA killed him in a drone attack in Iraq on January 3, 2020. He is revered as a martyr by government supporters loyal to the system.
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Source: www.ntv.de
