{"id":43867,"date":"2024-01-04T19:44:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/islamic-state-claims-iran-suicide-bombings-that-killed-84\/"},"modified":"2024-01-04T19:44:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:44:05","slug":"islamic-state-claims-iran-suicide-bombings-that-killed-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/islamic-state-claims-iran-suicide-bombings-that-killed-84\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic State claims Iran suicide bombings that killed 84"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The militant Islamic State (IS) group said on Thursday that it carried out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1803011\">twin bombings<\/a> which killed at least 84 people at a memorial ceremony in Iran for slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani.<\/p>\n<p>The claim from IS came as Iran observed a day of national mourning for those killed in Wednesday\u2019s blasts.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Telegram, IS said two of its members \u201cactivated their explosives vests\u201d among the crowds who had come to honour Soleimani on the anniversary of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1526046\">death<\/a> in a targeted US drone strike in Baghdad four years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian investigators had already confirmed that the first blast at least was the work of a \u201csuicide bomber\u201d and believed the trigger for the second was \u201cvery probably another suicide bomber\u201d, the official <em>IRNA<\/em> news agency reported earlier, citing an \u201cinformed source\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Soleimani, who headed the Guards\u2019 foreign operations arm the Quds Force, was a staunch enemy of IS, an extremist group which has carried out previous attacks in Iran.<\/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 wounded hundreds near Soleimani\u2019s tomb in the southern city of Kerman.<\/p>\n<p>Iran 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<p>Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi spoke to the <em>ISNA<\/em> news agency about bolstering security over its porous borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>He said authorities have identified \u201cpriority points to block along the border\u201d with the two countries, which has long been a key access point for militant groups, drug smugglers and irregular migrants.<\/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>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<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, 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>The militant Islamic State (IS) group said on Thursday that it carried out twin bombings which killed at least 84 people at a memorial ceremony in Iran for slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani. The claim from IS came as Iran observed a day of national mourning for those killed in Wednesday\u2019s blasts. In a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43868,"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":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43867","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=43867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}