DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian security forces arrested 11 people suspected of links to the deadly twin bombings in Kerman on Wednesday and seized explosives, the Intelligence Ministry said in a statement broadcast on Friday by state television in Tehran.
The attacks, claimed Thursday by the Islamic State group, left around a hundred dead in this city in southeastern Iran. They are the deadliest in the history of the Islamic Republic, founded in 1979.
In its statement, the Intelligence Ministry said two people were arrested for providing assistance to the two suicide bombers who caused the explosions.
The latter occurred a quarter of an hour apart during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the death of General Qassem Soleimani, former commander of external operations of the Revolutionary Guards, killed on January 3, 2020 by a strike of American drone in Iraq.
The other nine people are suspected of links to the attacks, the ministry added.
Explosives, explosive vests, remotely deactivated explosive devices and detonators were also seized, he said, adding that one of the suicide bombers was identified as being of Tajik nationality.
Communications intercepted by the United States confirm that the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group is responsible for the double attack, two sources close to American intelligence who requested anonymity told Reuters on Friday. “The intelligence is unequivocal and indisputable,” one of the sources said.
(Editor from Dubai, with Jonathan Landay and Steve Holland in Washington, Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version, edited by Zhifan Liu)
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