The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility on Thursday for the attack which left 84 dead in Iran the day before, near the tomb of General Qassem Soleimani, former architect of Iranian military operations in the Middle East, whose death the country commemorated in 2020. Via its Telegram channels, the jihadist group indicated that two of its members “activated their explosive belt” in the middle of “a large gathering of apostates, near the grave of their leader ‘Qassem Soleimani’ yesterday ( Wednesday) in Kerman, southern Iran.
The IS included this operation as part of a campaign called “And kill them wherever you find them”, according to the press release. A few minutes before the claim, IS had released an audio recording of its spokesperson saying that this campaign was being carried out “in support of Muslims wherever they are, particularly in Palestine”.
Soleimani, one of the country’s most popular personalities
The attack, which also left 284 injured, took place near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque which houses the tomb of General Soleimani killed in January 2020 in an American drone attack in Iraq. Qassem Soleimani was a key figure in the Islamic Republic and one of the country’s most popular figures. Declared a “living martyr” by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while he was still alive, Soleimani was celebrated for his role in the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The attack having occurred in a very tense regional context since the start of the conflict in October between Israel and Hamas, Iranian officials immediately pointed the finger at Israel and the United States. In the United States, the State Department had deemed “absurd” any suggestion of US or Israeli involvement in what “looks like a terrorist attack, the kind of thing ISIS has done through the past,” according to a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.