{"id":43809,"date":"2024-01-04T16:20:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T16:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/iran-holds-day-of-mourning-for-84-killed-in-twin-blasts\/"},"modified":"2024-01-04T16:20:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T16:20:05","slug":"iran-holds-day-of-mourning-for-84-killed-in-twin-blasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/iran-holds-day-of-mourning-for-84-killed-in-twin-blasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran holds day of mourning for 84 killed in twin blasts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Iran observed a day of mourning on Thursday for the at least 84 people killed when twin blasts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1803011\">ripped<\/a> through a crowd commemorating the slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani.<\/p>\n<p>The death toll was revised down from around 100 the day after what Iranian authorities labelled a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d that also left hundreds wounded near Soleimani\u2019s tomb in the southern city of Kerman.<\/p>\n<p>No one claimed responsibility for the explosions in Iran, which has suffered deadly attacks in the past from militants as well as targeted killings of officials and nuclear scientists blamed on arch-foe Israel.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1803202\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The blasts ripped through crowds who had come to honour Soleimani, four years after a US drone strike in Baghdad <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1526046\">killed<\/a> the veteran senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday blamed \u201cevil and criminal enemies\u201d of the Islamic republic, without naming them, and vowed a \u201charsh response\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Regional tensions have surged amid Gaza\u2019s bombardment sparked when Hamas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1779807\">launched<\/a> its October 7 surprise attack on Israel, which Tehran welcomed while denying any involvement.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1785241\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>President Ebrahim Raisi\u2019s political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi, charged on social media platform X that \u201cthe responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist (Israeli) regimes, and terrorism is just a tool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The United States rejected any suggestion that it or its ally Israel were behind the deadly blasts, while Israel declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States was not involved in any way, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous,\u201d said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion,\u201d he added, expressing sympathies to the victims of the \u201chorrific\u201d explosions and their families.<\/p>\n<p>Soleimani, who headed the Guards\u2019 foreign operations arm the Quds Force, was also a staunch enemy of the Sunni extremist Islamic State group which has carried out attacks in majority-Shiite Iran.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"desperate-enemy\" href=\"#desperate-enemy\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>\u2018Desperate enemy\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Regional tensions have surged amid Gaza\u2019s bombardment, drawing in Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.<\/p>\n<p>Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel on October 7, killing around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an <em>AFP<\/em> tally based on official Israeli figures.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Israel launched a relentless offensive that has reduced vast swathes of Gaza to rubble and claimed over 22,400 lives, according to the health ministry in the Gaza territory.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian authorities called for mass protests over the Kerman blasts after weekly prayers on Friday, the day when local officials also said the victims\u2019 funerals will be held.<\/p>\n<p>Revising the death toll, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi cited forensic data and said: \u201cThe number of martyrs [\u2026] has been announced as 84 so far,\u201d official news agency <em>IRNA<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s emergency services chief Jafar Miadfar pointed to difficulties identifying dismembered bodies and said some victims were mistakenly counted \u201cseveral times\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said 284 people were wounded and \u201c195 are still hospitalised\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Revered by many Iranians, Soleimani oversaw military operations across the Middle East, and millions came to his funeral in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Current Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani suggested the Kerman crowd was \u201cattacked by bloodthirsty people supplied by the United States and the Zionist regime\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to two recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1803004\">killings<\/a> widely blamed on Israel \u2014 a Beirut strike on Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri, and the killing near Damascus of senior Guards commander Razi Moussavi in December.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe killing of Aruri and people like Razi Moussavi and the crime in Kerman show how desperate the enemy is,\u201d Qaani said.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran regularly accuses its arch-foes Israel and the United States of inciting unrest in the country, and authorities last month executed five people convicted of collaborating with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Iran\u2019s intelligence ministry said it had disbanded a network \u201clinked to Israel\u2019s spy organisation\u201d that it said had been plotting \u201cterrorist operations\u201d across Iran, <em>IRNA<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n<p>In September, the <em>Fars<\/em> news agency had reported that an IS-affiliated key \u201coperative\u201d, in charge of carrying out \u201cterrorist operations\u201d in Iran, were arrested in Kerman.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, condolences continued on Thursday as caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said that he spoke with his Iranian counterpart and assured him that Pakistan stood in solidarity with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTerrorism is a common threat which must be countered by effective measures,\u201d he said in a post on his X account.<\/p>\n<p>Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha extended condolences over the death of people and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe OIC renews its solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran in this tragic event,\u201d a statement from the OIC said.<\/p>\n<p>The European Union\u2019s top diplomat Josep Borrell also offered his condolences, describing the incident as a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Borrell spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian \u201cto convey condolences following the horrific bombings today in Kerman that killed dozens of civilians\u201d, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief said on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI condemned this terrorist attack in the strongest terms and expressed solidarity with the Iranian people,\u201d Borrell added.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping offered his condolences as well over the blasts, telling his counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that he was \u201cshocked\u201d by the incidents.<\/p>\n<p>In a message to Raisi, Xi said he was \u201cshocked to learn of the serious terrorist attack in Iran\u2019s Kerman province, which resulted in heavy casualties\u201d, state broadcaster <em>CCTV<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of the Chinese government and people, I would like to express our deep condolences to the victims and our sincere sympathy to the injured and the families of the victims,\u201d he was reported as saying.<\/p>\n<p>Xi \u201cstressed that the Chinese side opposes all forms of terrorism, strongly condemns terrorist attacks and firmly supports Iran\u2019s efforts to maintain national security and stability\u201d, according to <em>CCTV<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>Additional input from APP.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran observed a day of mourning on Thursday for the at least 84 people killed when twin blasts ripped through a crowd commemorating the slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani. The death toll was revised down from around 100 the day after what Iranian authorities labelled a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d that also left hundreds wounded near [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/04193748e3e0c43.jpg?r=200042","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}