Sébastien Le Belzic // Credits: SARE TAJALLI / ISNA / AFP
modified to
5:28 p.m., January 4, 2024
At least 84 people were killed in a bomb attack on Wednesday near the tomb of Qassem Soleimani in Iran, according to a lower toll. An event raising fears of a deterioration of the political and military situation in the region. Ayatollah Khamenei promises a “severe response”.
The deadliest attack in 46 years. At least 84 people were killed and more than 280 injured in an attack on Wednesday near the tomb of General Qassem Soleimani in Iran. Two bombs exploded, a few minutes apart. Both devices were hidden in bags and were activated remotely using remote controls. A strategy designed to cause as many victims as possible. An event raising fears of a deterioration of the political and military situation in the region.
An attack which occurs in full escalation
“It can only make the situation worse if the Iranians want to make the situation worse. Iran can always have fun deploying, mobilizing part of its army and sending boats into the Strait of Hormuz to try to block the traffic, but it cannot face the international maritime coalition, extremely solid and serious on the military level constituted by the United States. Iran does not have many marbles and this is also true against Israel whose the army and the government, today, are extremely dangerous,” Frédéric Encel, specialist in geopolitics, explains to Europe 1.
This double attack comes less than a week after an Israeli strike in Damascus which killed a senior Iranian commander of the Revolutionary Guards and the day after the assassination of Hamas number two in Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah supported by Iran.