The Iranian government on Thursday said it had already arrested 35 people in connection with the deadly Jan. 3 bombing in Kerman, the hometown of terrorist mastermind Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) General Qasem Soleimani. An international search for further suspects is underway. in progress.
Two devices were involved in the January 3 bombing. exploded Near Soleimani's tomb during a memorial event to mark the fourth anniversary of Soleimani's death.Soleimani is killed In 2020, in Baghdad, Iraq, he was attacked by a U.S. military drone strike while coordinating a terrorist attack on U.S. forces and attempting to organize an attack on the U.S. embassy.
The two bombings have the hallmarks of an Islamic State terrorist attack, with one explosion causing panic in the crowd and drawing first responders to the scene, but a second explosion killing more victims. It often happens. Iran said the bombing killed 93 people, nine of them children, and injured about 300.
The Iranian regime floated conspiracy theories that the United States or Israel were behind the bombing, which ISIS actually did. take credit for the atrocities of the next day.
This photo taken on January 3, 2024, marks the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards commander Qasem Soleimani and shows where two explosions in quick succession hit a crowd. (TASNIM NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian officials continued: claim ISIS bombers were “backed by the United States” and government officials, including supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, vowed revenge.
“The cruel criminals should know that they will be dealt with harshly in the future, and there will definitely be a harsh response,” Khamenei said. Said last week.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said: Said reporter At a cabinet meeting, it was announced that “key players” in the terrorist attack, including the Tajik national who was said to be the mastermind, had been detained. Vahidi said more arrests were expected, including some outside Iran's borders.
On Thursday, Iran's Ministry of Information released A statement identifying the mastermind of the bombing under the alias “Abdullah Taziki.”
According to the statement, the “Tajki nationals” entered Iran from Tajikistan on December 19 with women and children who served as a “front” for the terrorist attack. He is said to have assembled an improvised explosive device (IED) used in the operation and left Iran two days before the Kerman bombing.
The Ministry of Intelligence identified one of the suicide bombers as a 24-year-old Tajik national who used the name “Bazirov Israel”. As his name suggests, he is reportedly He held both Tajikistani and Israeli nationality.
An Iranian demonstrator holds a poster of the late Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Bazirov Israeli was allegedly scouted by ISIS through the encrypted messaging application Telegram, came to Iran via Turkey with the help of “human traffickers” and was trained at an ISIS camp in Afghanistan. There is.
The statement said that the Israeli and Tajikistanis who were apparently the second-in-commands of the operation and one of the bombers had initially planned to blow up Soleimani's mausoleum, but that they had reconsidered given its “rigorous and multi-layered structure.” He claimed to have changed the . Security” and chose a nearby explosion instead.
The Ministry of Information said the identity of the second suicide bomber remains unknown. ISIS itself named the bombers involved in “Operation Double Martyrdom” as “Omar al-Mowaid” and “Saifullah al-Mujahid.”
According to an ISIS statement, the two was dispatched It bombed Iran because Soleimani was “involved in the killing of thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Syria,” by which the Islamic State meant its own fighters. Although Soleimani did little in the war against the ISIS caliphate, he helped dictator Bashar al-Assad maintain control over the country by fighting the Syrian rebels.
ISIS added that the Iranians killed by the bomber were Shiite Muslims who were practicing “polytheistic rituals” and therefore deserved death. ISIS espouses an extremist brand of Sunni Islam that views memorial services as a form of idolatry.
