Jan 5 (Reuters) – Iran’s interior minister said on Friday that suspects involved in Wednesday’s explosions in the country’s southeast had been arrested.
“Relevant intelligence agencies of our country have found very good clues regarding the elements involved in the terrorist explosions in Kerman and a part of those who played a role in this incident have been arrested,” the official told state television. Minister Ahmad Vahidi, without giving further details.
At the same time, the mourning crowd chanted “revenge, revenge” during the funerals of victims of the explosions, in images broadcast on state television.
Nearly 100 people were killed on Wednesday in Kerman, southeastern Iran, following the attack, the deadliest in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
According to Iranian state television, the two explosions occurred with an interval of 15 minutes as a crowd gathered at a cemetery where Qassem Soleimani, former head of the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Al Quds force, is buried. on January 3, 2020 in an American strike in Iraq.
The explosions occurred as regional tensions worsen, particularly since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza for almost three months.
On Thursday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist organization said two of its members detonated explosive belts in the crowd gathered for the commemoration.
“We will find you wherever you are,” Revolutionary Guards commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami threatened during the funeral in Kerman’s Imam Ali religious center.
“Our enemies can see the power of Iran and the whole world knows its strength and capabilities,” President Ebrahim Raïssi said in a televised speech. “Our forces will decide where and when to take action.”
In 2022, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shiite shrine in Iran, which left 15 dead. The organization also claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in 2017 that targeted the Iranian parliament and the tomb of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini.
(Editor from Dubai; French version Gaëlle Sheehan, edited by Kate Entringer)
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