Iran mourns those killed in Islamic State-claimed deadly attacks as death toll reaches to 89

Speaking to a mass funeral for the victims of the recent suicide bombing in Kerman, Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi and the Revolutionary Guard’s top commander, attempted to connect Israel and the U.S. to the attack, claiming a link without presenting evidence.

The crowd responded with chants of “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” The attack, which targeted a commemoration for Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, involved two suicide bombers and resulted in the deaths of 89 people.

“The enemy always sees the power of the Islamic Republic. The whole world is recognizing this power and this ability,” Raisi said, without directly naming any country. “Be sure, the initiative is in the hands of our powerful forces. The place and time will be determined by our forces.”

Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility on Thursday for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020.

In a statement posted on its affiliate Telegram channels, the militant Sunni Muslim group said two IS members had detonated their explosive belts in the crowd which had gathered at the cemetery in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman on Wednesday for the anniversary of Soleimani’s death.

The attack Wednesday in Kerman killed at least 84 people and wounded another 284. It targeted a ceremony honouring Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, held as an icon by supporters & viewed by the US military as a deadly foe who aided militants who killed American troops in Iraq.

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Iranian state television also sought to link America to the attack. At one point, it re-broadcast comments from 2016 from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, who wrongly accused then-President Barack Obama of being the “founder” of the extremist group.

Critics have blamed Obama’s decision to pull troops from Iraq in 2011 for allowing the group, once an affiliate of al-Qaida, to thrive and ultimately hold vast swaths of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate by 2014. U.S. troops under both Obama and Trump then battled alongside allied forces to retake that territory.

Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of the Guard, similarly sought to make the connection.

“They can only act as agents and mercenaries of American politics and Zionism,” Salami said. “But we give them this warning, … wherever you are, we will find you. You cannot avoid divine punishment by disappearing. If you live for 1,000 years, we will find you.”

Soleimani had been part of the Iranian response to the Islamic State group in Syria while focusing on keeping embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad in power. He also had extensive ties to proxy groups around the wider Mideast, including Hamas. But the U.S., which killed Soleimani as part of wider tensions over its collapsed nuclear deal with world powers, saw Soleimani as the mastermind behind deadly roadside bombings targeting American soldiers in Iraq.

The two attacks on Wednesday killed at least 89 people and wounded about 280 others, authorities said Friday in an update of the death toll. The attacks have sparked condemnation from around the world, even amid Iran’s wider tensions with the West over its nuclear program.

Pope Francis offered a condolence telegram to express his deep sadness over the “loss of life caused by the recent explosions in Kerman,” the Vatican said on Friday.

Francis “invokes upon all the people of Iran the Almighty’s blessings of wisdom and peace,” the Vatican said.

The Islamic State group claimed the attack Thursday in a statement that named the two bombers and described it as part of a new campaign linked to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. The statement bore some differences to previous claims made by the Islamic State group in other attacks it has claimed in Iran, though experts said it appeared to be legitimate and came from online channels associated with the extremists. Much of the group’s leadership has been killed and replaced in the years since 2014.

It’s unclear why the two Iranian leaders chose to focus on the U.S. and Israel, rather than on the Islamic State group, during their remarks Friday. Iran has retaliated in the past over IS-claimed attacks, including launching ballistic missiles into Syria.

However, the Islamic State group has grown stronger in recent years in neighboring Afghanistan, just some 360 kilometers (225 miles) east of Kerman, since the Western-backed government in Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021.

Iran and the Taliban have maintained diplomatic ties since the takeover, though there have been border skirmishes and tensions over water supplies between the two nations. Iranian officials say at least 12 of the dead in Wednesday’s bombings were Afghans.

With inputs from AP.