The Islamic State on Thursday used one of its channels on the messaging platform Telegram to claim responsibility for the bombings in Iran that killed almost a hundred people at a ceremony to honor terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani.
Iranian officials have been insinuating or outright accusing the United States and Israel of organizing the bomb attacks on Wednesday – the fourth anniversary of Soleimani’s elimination by a U.S. drone strike while he was coordinating terrorist attacks on Iraqi soil.
Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force, a division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization. He was targeted by the U.S. after he organized attacks by Shiite militia groups in Iraq against U.S. personnel, one of which killed a military contractor. He was also involved in organizing an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which would have been an act of war if he had succeeded.
In this Sept. 18, 2016, file photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File).
The Iranian theocracy declared Soleimani a “martyr” and vowed revenge for his death. The regime has organized periodic rallies for the slain IRGC officer, while Iranian dissidents often burn photos of him to demonstrate their defiance.
Thousands of Iranians were attending an event to mark the anniversary of Soleiman’s “martyrdom” in his hometown of Kerman on Wednesday when two explosions occurred within ten minutes of each other. The bomb triggered a stampede, while the second killed both fleeing civilians and first responders, a fairly common terrorist tactic. The Iranian government has confirmed 95 deaths so far, but there were also hundreds of injuries.
Iran vowed revenge for the attack, which President Ebrahim Raisi condemned as the “heinous and inhumane” work of “cruel criminals.”
President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, in New York (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow).
Iranian officials and proxies, like Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon, blamed the U.S. and Israel for ordering or perpetrating the attack.
On Thursday, the Islamic State issued a statement on Telegram saying two of its members “activated their explosive vests” at the ceremony for Soleimani.
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