Iran vows revenge after twin blasts kill 84 at memorial

Many had gathered to mark anniversary of top commander’s assassination in 2020

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber vowed revenge on Jan 4 for explosions that killed 84 people at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020 in Iraq.

“A very strong retaliation will be handed to them in the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani,” Mr Mokhber told reporters at a hospital where some of the wounded were receiving treatment for the bloodiest attack since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said the blasts appeared to represent “a terrorist attack” of the type carried out in the past by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants.

In a statement, Iran’s powerful Guards described the attack on Jan 3 as a cowardly act “aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation’s deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic”.

The Guards said the attack “strengthens the resolve to decisively and justly punish the perpetrators”.

The Guards commander in the south-eastern city of Kerman denied state media reports of a shooting in Kerman on Jan 4.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the “heinous and inhumane crime” and Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed revenge for the twin bombings.

Iran’s Red Crescent rescuers tended to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s killing.