Iran's Kerman regional government announced this weekend that it had positively identified and arrested all terrorist suspects involved in the Jan. 3 bombing of an event commemorating the death anniversary of Iranian terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani.
Soleimani, the late commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)'s elite foreign terrorist force, the Quds Force, was removed from the battlefield by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on January 3, 2020. He was in the country to meet with heads of several Iranian-backed militias in the region and was killed along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, head of the Iraqi terrorist group Hezbollah Brigades.
Iran typically hosts extravagant memorial events that draw thousands of people to commemorate drone strikes and threaten attacks on the United States. Iranian officials have regularly threatened to kill former President Donald Trump and recently demanded $50 billion in compensation for drone attacks.
On January 3, 2024, Iran's Islamist regime held a large-scale event to commemorate the terrorist in Kerman, where Soleimani's grave is located. After the first explosion, two explosions occurred outside the cemetery, spaced far enough apart to target first responders, killing 89 people and injuring nearly 300.
The Islamic State (ISIS), a Sunni jihadist group that opposes Shiite terrorist bases such as Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack. Iranian officials have also said they believe ISIS is responsible, although the Islamic State group has a history of taking credit for attacks for which it is not involved.
Mehdi Bakshi, Kerman city prosecutor, said: Confirmed On Saturday, Iranian television reported that a suicide bomber had carried out the terrorist attack, claiming that Iranian law enforcement authorities had identified and arrested 32 people involved in planning the attack.
“32 people were arrested” [connection with] Kerman [terrorist] It is a criminal case and a preliminary interrogation is underway,” Iran's state-run Mehr News Agency said. Quote Bakshi said this, adding that as a result of the investigation against these individuals, 16 more bombs were discovered in Kerman province in preparation for future attacks. Bakshi claimed that all 32 people arrested were linked to Soleimani's funeral bombing.
At press time, the Iranian government had not released the identity of the suicide bomber directly responsible for the attack.Bakshi did it confirm But this weekend it emerged that one of the bombers was Tajik.
People at the scene and Iranian emergency workers as two explosions hit a crowd in quick succession to commemorate the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards General Qasem Soleimani in the southern Iranian city of Kerman on January 3, 2024. . (Sale Tajari/ISNA/AFP)
Iranian leaders on Monday welcomed Tajik government official Rustam Emomali, speaker of Tajikistan's parliament, following reports of his meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. did not show The president reportedly asked about his country's potential role in Soleimani's funeral bombing.
Bakshi, a Kerman official, also said in an interview this weekend that Kerman police had arrested 23 more “Daesh terrorists” who were preparing suicide bombings in “recent months”, although he did not provide details. Stated.
Maher called the group that carried out the attack “the US-backed Daesh Takfir group.” “Daesh” is an acronym for “Islamic State” in Arabic. “Takfiri'' is a term used for Muslims who unfairly accuse other Muslims of being apostates, and refers to the Islamic State's rejection of Shia Islam.
The Iranian government claims that the Islamic State is a proxy terrorist organization of the United States and blames both the United States and Israel for the attack on Soleimani's memorial service. The administration-orchestrated crowd denounced the January 3 attack and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” even though there was no evidence pointing to any organizations or groups that were publicly known at the time. he shouted. The attack after the “Death to America” rally was credited to ISIS.
مردم گرگان در اقدامی خودجوش با تجمع در میدان وحدت گرگان (شهرداری ) و با در دست داشتن پلاکاردهایی و سر دادن شعار مرگ بر آمریکا و مرگ بر اسرا،یلر این اقدام تروریستی را محکوم کرahhttps://t.co/XmxG8Spfxf pic.twitter.com/vkcpWy7kQC
— Tasnim News 🇷 🇷 (@Tasnimnews_Fa) January 3, 2024
“Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the cause of the bombing in Kerman could be traced to Zionist grudges against Supreme Anti-Terrorism Commander General Qassem Soleimani,” Iranian state media reported. press tv reported on January 5, “By founding and supporting the Daesh terrorist organization, he jeopardized plans to establish a new Israel in the region.''
Raisi went on to say that the “enemies” were the United States and Israel, and that “Daesh puppet groups wanted to take control of Iraq and Syria.” In reality, the United States, along with allied Kurdish militias, brought down the ISIS “caliphate.” President Trump ordered a military operation in 2019 that resulted in the capture and death of ISIS's “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
'Evidence' used by Press TV to claim the US is a partner in ISIS terrorism shows that former President Donald Trump called his predecessor Barack Obama the 'founder of ISIS' during the 2016 campaign. It was a comment. Trump means that Obama's foreign policy created the conditions that caused al-Qaeda in Iraq to eventually evolve into the Islamic State terrorist organization, and that ISIS is an organization supported by the U.S. government and Israel. has never been claimed.
