Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 3 Jan 2024
TWIN BOMB BLASTS killed at least 103 people in Iran today, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike, state media reported.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed “evil and criminal enemies” of the country for the attack and vowed a “harsh response.”
The two explosions – labelled a “terrorist attack” by state media and regional authorities – came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns” the unclaimed attacks.
Mohammad Jamshidi, a senior advisor to Iran’s president, blamed Israel and the United States, while the US said it looks like past attacks by ISIS.
“It does look like a terrorist attack, the kind of thing ISIS has done in the past, and that’s our ongoing assumption at the moment,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
The blasts, about 15 minutes apart, struck near the Martyrs Cemetery at the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in Kerman, Soleimani’s southern hometown, as supporters gathered to mark his killing in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.
Official IRNA news agency said the number of dead rose to 103 while state television reported 211 wounded, some in critical condition.
Three paramedics who rushed to the scene after the first explosion were among those killed, said Iran’s Red Crescent.
IRNA said the first explosion took place around 700 metres from Soleimani’s grave while the other was around one kilometre away.
President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the “heinous” crime as the Islamic Republic of Iran declared Thursday a national day of mourning.
Tasnim news agency, quoting what it called informed sources, said “two bags carrying bombs went off” and “the perpetrators… apparently detonated the bombs by remote control”.
Online footage showed panicked crowds scrambling to flee as security personnel cordoned off the area.
State television showed bloodied victims lying on the ground and ambulances and rescue personnel racing to help them.
“We were walking towards the cemetery when a car suddenly stopped behind us and a waste bin containing a bomb exploded,” an eyewitness was quoted saying by the ISNA news agency.
“We only heard the explosion and saw people falling.”
By nightfall, crowds returned back the Martyrs Cemetery in Kerman chanting: “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.
In Tehran, thousands gathered at the Grand Mosalla Mosque to pay tribute to Soleimani.
“We condemn today’s bitter terrorist incident… I hope the perpetrators of the crime will be identified and punished for their actions,” Soleimani’s daughter, Zeinab, said.
Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East.
The twin blasts were denounced by the European Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Irad and Jordan.
“The EU condemns in the strongest terms today’s bombing… This act of terror has exacted a shocking toll of civilian deaths and injuries,” an EU statement said.
“The killing of peaceful people visiting the cemetery is shocking in its cruelty and cynicism,” Putin wrote to Raisi and Khamenei.
Iraq – where some 3,000 people gathered in Baghdad Tuesday to commemorate Soleimani – said it was ready to help “to alleviate the impact of this cowardly criminal act”.
The blasts came a day after Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri — an Iran ally — was killed in a strike, which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel, on a southern Beirut suburb that is a stronghold of Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Wednesday’s bomb blasts were Iran’s deadliest since a 1978 arson Cinema Rex attack in the southwestern city of Abadan, which killed at least 377 people, according to AFP archives.
Iran has long fought a shadow war of killings and sabotage with arch enemy Israel and also battled various jihadist and other militant groups.
In September, the Fars news agency reported that a key “operative” affiliated with the Islamic State group, in charge of carrying out “terrorist operations” in Iran, had been arrested in Kerman.
In July, Iran’s intelligence ministry said it had disbanded a network “linked to Israel’s spy organisation” which had been plotting “terrorist operations” across Iran, IRNA reported.
The alleged plots included “planning an explosion at the grave” of Soleimani, it said.
Soleimani, whom Khamenei years ago declared a “living martyr”, was widely regarded as a hero in Iran for his role in defeating IS in both Iraq and Syria.
Long seen as a deadly adversary by the United States and its allies, Soleimani was one of the most important powerbrokers across the region, setting Iran’s political and military agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
More than welcome…
@Pete Lee: Why would we protest, the Trump administration has been nothing but kind to Ireland.
People might not like Trump, but he hasn’t done anything other than sour relations.
Not very political, but hardly dictator-ish.
@Pete Lee: yes our simpering government can’t wait to kiss his bum.
@Cynical: Other than locking thousands of children up in concentration camps without charge in appalling conditions, he’s a great guy. Crimes against humanity notwithstanding.
@seamus mcdermott: If you read this, it seems to have been a serious issue in the US long before he got a chance to try and stick his fingers in it. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/magazine/the-shame-of-americas-family-detention-camps.html
Honestly, other than threatening people he’s going to do something, please tell me what has he actually done?
I’m not a Trump supporter, I just think people waste way too much energy following updates on whether he picked his left nostril or right one.
So tolerant liberals who celebrate diversity can’t tolerate someone with diverse views. Instead of demonstrating against Mike Pence’s visit, shouldn’t they be demonstrating how tolerant they are by welcoming him?
@Henry Gaynor: they are. They’re breaking out their glitter balls. Shiny, happy people. I bet Mike even has a pair of flares in his closet.
@jamesdecay: He could bring a plane load of Mexican migrants with him and they could get a right old salsa going. The demonstrators could bring them home for the night afterwards. Isn’t that what often happens at discos?
@Henry Gaynor: in fairness, I haven’t been to a disco in a long, long time. But that sounds the makings of a plan. Or at least a good hooley anyway
@Henry Gaynor: what the hell are you talking about? …
Fantastic news, we need more progressive politicians like Mike.
@Mick paisley: Progressive you say?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence#Criticism_and_controversy
@Greg Ward: that’s the trouble with social media. It’s impossible to tell from a post, the difference between the angry, funny and the gobshide.
@Paul Furey: Jasus Paul calm down will ya!
@Ananya Sharma: And there you go, you perceived he wasn’t calm, I perceived nothing like that!
@Greg Ward: it can be hard to tell sometimes. Maybe we should adopt the /s used on reddit.
@Paul Furey: Mick’s comment was very obviously sarcasm.
@Mick paisley: why would we need progressives, they are a pack of nut jobs. They are the new fascists.
@Burn_the_Witch: Blatant. Certain users should need an ‘N’ badge until such subtitles are recognised.
Where were this lot when our parliament was (incredibly) shut down to accommodate Nancy Pelosi…who had just legalised abortion UP TO BIRTH in New York??
But I guess that this shower are the ones who allowed the same up to birth abortion to belegalisedhere last year.
Yes you did…or did you not bother to find out what your yes vote would mean.
@Ismise Máire: I don’t know really. I guess they were at home happy that the dáil was celebrated someone who fights for women’s rights over the perceived “rights” of religious nutbags. That’s my guess.
@Ismise Máire: I’m so happy that I voted Yes to Repeal the 8th and fully informed myself, watched and listened to all of the debates, heard the falsehoods of the ‘Pro-Life’ campaign which were easily dismissed, it was such an historic day and Ireland can be proud that the vast majority of her citizens voted in solidarity with our women.
@Ismise Máire: wow, the falsehoods are strong in this one.
@Ismise Máire: look. We had a referendum. You lost. The writing is on the wall for you.
@Mairead1990: what falsehoods Liam?
@Mairead1990: Where do you stand on a woman’s right to be born?
@Henry Gaynor: Hey, don’t be sexist, men too!!! And @Mairead1990 where do you stand on a man’s right to not pay maintenance? Would that be a fair comparison, or does the right to choose only affect women? I know it’s a crazy comparison, but it’s a crazy world, right?
It’s a Monday and Tuesday, do protesters not have jobs to go to.
@aidan mccormack: break out those disco pants, man. Sounds like you need a bop
@aidan mccormack: the only people who have this kind of time to protest are the unemployed perma protesters & employees of state funded advocacy/charity groups. Chinese diplomats do not receive the same animosity for some reason.
@Seamus Mac: think the same about protestors in Hong Kong?
@GrahamMManning: Protesters around the world face the same treatment as those in Hong Kong. Yellow vests were tear gassed in France, protesting war veterans were shot with live ammo in the US.
@GrahamMManning: I think the people in Hong Kong feel that what they are protesting against would have a negative impact on their lives and once implemented would be unchangeable. The Pence protesters are doing so because they don’t like the man’s views.
@GrahamMManning: no disco in hong kong
I don’t agree with Pence views but I do believe he is entitled to hold them. His principles and mine are radically different but my belief in tolerance and diversity means I cannot deny him his right to be different . Respect is a two way street …Pence is a guest of Ireland ., so any protest must be respectful , express a position but not insult a visitor. Leo handled this balance well in Washington ; we must all handle it equally well in a balanced respectful way here .
@peter finnegan: A tolerant liberal. Well done to you. Because it is right-thinking liberals who get to decide what speech is intolerant, the result, in practical terms, is that the ethic of tolerance provides no restraint on liberals at all. It is only a restraint on the actions, speech and, ultimately, thought of their political opponents.
For those on the other side, Catholics or conservatives or anyone who does not subscribe to the new liberal orthodoxy, they are no longer expected merely to tolerate those views with which they disagree, but to affirm and celebrate them – anything less is seen as bigotry etc. Meanwhile, secular liberals can be as intolerant as they like, verbally attacking people and their characters while almost never engaging with and debating their ideas.
@Burn_the_Witch: so you’re annoyed because you think he sounds patronizing? He sounds reasonable to me. But maybe I’m just another one of those god-awful liberals and I’m just demonstrating confirmation bias.
Good name though. Funny how the intolerant burned ‘witches’ in the Middle Ages because of fear, ignorance and a general intolerance of something different.
@jamesdecay: I wasn’t criticizing him at all. Just making a point about how unique he is. And ‘Burn the Witch’ is a song title that I used, nothing to do with politics or anything else except I like said song.
@jamesdecay: And far from being annoyed, I totally agree with everything the OP said. Sorry if my original comment confused you, I should have been clearer.
@Burn_the_Witch: all good
@jamesdecay: Thanks.
I dont want the taoiseachs partner/boyfriend representing me.
@Miller: then don’t vote for Leo and his mates next time. Surprisingly you don’t get to pick their partner
@Miller: You must know Leo’s partner.
@Miller: aw why?
@Miller: do you feel the same about Sabina Higgins? What’s the difference that one couple is gay and the other isn’t? Ridiculous comment but why am I surprised.
A disco?
@Briscoe Sundara: well when you’re protesting every week it gets kind of repetitive. Good to have a theme night to change it up a little!
I thought it couldn’t get any worse than Mr varadkar and all his buddies getting their photo op with Kylie minogue. How many leaders bring their partner and mammy and daddy to meet a world leader. It’s beyond cringeworthy.
@Leo Lalor: most leaders bring their partner to meet with fellow world leaders. I’m sure they would bring their parents too if they were still alive, remember many leaders are elderly and their parents may be sadly deceased. I can’t see the issue and I seriously doubt Mike Pence will see it either.
@Leo Lalor: mike pence bringing his family so what’s the issue
@Deirdre Fahey: we are paying millions towards his security
Mike Pence is part of an administration that is using its influence and soft power to end the criminalisation of homosexuality throughout the world.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-launches-global-effort-end-criminalization-homosexuality-n973081
Why don’t you start paying for your meals Leo.
@Diogenes: I wonder will beef be on the menu.
@Dave Doyle: Only if it’s Brazilian!
Bríd Smith and her cronies will no doubt be protesting against his visit she and her leftie lunnies represent everything I despise about this country.
@Bass demon: Colm o Gorman and his crew is
A “real of Ireland”, really? Pense is loadsa things, v few good, but ye went with he’s not imaginary? Not sure what that fact has to with us but ok.
@GrahamMManning: guess the word ‘friend’ is missing. Surprising. Not much escapes the razor-sharp spellcheckers at The Journal
Hospitals homeless poverty do I need to go on
…and ONE word about Palestine.
@Niall MacSweeney: please could you pass the Palestine! *cough I mean peas!.. I’ll get my coat
How things have changed in 20 years….
Hams…
Seeing its a “family lunch” I hope Leo is footing the bill
Side show. Government get the health system in order and enjoy your lunch but for Christ sake get to work.
So are the Irish taxpayers paying for his parents lunch?
have your say