'Terrorist attacks' on Soleimani's burial site kill over 100

TEHERAN — Two explosions near the burial site of Iran's slain general Qassem Soleimani killed at least 103 people and wounded over 170 others on Wednesday, reported the official IRNA news agency and the semiofficial Fars news agency, calling it "terrorist" attacks.

The blasts occurred as many people gathered at the cemetery in Iran's southeastern city of Kerman to mark the fourth anniversary of Soleimani's death in a US drone strike.

The first blast was about 700 meters from Soleimani's tomb and the second was a kilometer away, IRNA said.

IRNA quoted Rahman Jalali, the deputy governor of Kerman Province for political and security affairs, as saying that the explosions were carried out by "terrorists".

Babak Yektaparast, a spokesman for Iran's National Medical Emergency Organization, told the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, or IRINN, that some of the injured were in critical condition and the death toll could rise.

The IRINN said the cause of the blasts was still under investigation and that rescue teams were at the scene. It added that most of the injuries were caused by overcrowding and panic.

Soleimani, one of the most powerful military commanders in Iran, was killed on Jan 3, 2020, near Baghdad's international airport in a drone strike ordered by then-US president Donald Trump.

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East.

He was buried in his hometown of Kerman after a funeral that drew millions of mourners across Iran. Iran denounced the assassination as "state terrorism" and vowed revenge.

Iran's Tasnim news agency, quoting informed sources, said "two bags carrying bombs went off" at the site.

"The perpetrators … of this incident apparently detonated the bombs by remote control," Tasnim added.

The ISNA news agency quoted Kerman mayor Saeed Tabrizi as saying the bombs exploded 10 minutes apart.

"We were walking toward the cemetery when a car suddenly stopped behind us and a waste bin containing a bomb exploded," an eyewitness was quoted by ISNA as saying.

"We only heard the sound of the explosion and saw people falling. There was a bomb in the trash can," the witness added.

Online footage showed crowds scrambling to flee as security personnel cordoned off the area.

Images on state television showed several ambulances and rescue personnel in the area.

Among the people killed were three paramedics who were dispatched to the area following the first explosion, according to Iran's Red Crescent.

Xinhua - Agencies