Jan. 6 (UPI) — Iranian officials have announced the arrest of 11 people in connection with a pair of deadly suicide bombings in the southeastern city of Kerman on Wednesday.
Iran’s Ministry of Information revealed Friday that one suicide bombers was from Tajikistan as the toll from the twin blasts was raised to 91 deaths and 280 injuries.
After identifying how the suicide bombers entered Iran, investigators determined where they stayed prior to the attack and have now arrested 11 people in six provinces, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings that happened at the tomb of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qasem Soleimani in Kerman on Wednesday, four years after the U.S. military used a drone to assassinate Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
This week’s attack is the deadliest event in Iran since the 1979 revolution. A mass funeral was held in Kerman Friday for the victims with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and current IRGC commander Gen. Hossein Salami attending.
During the funeral, Raisi claimed that Israel supports the Islamic State and revealed the names of the two suicide bombers were Omer al-Mohed and Safiullah Mujahid, the Anadolu Agency reported Saturday.
The two men wore vests laden with explosives to commit the mass-casualty attack.
Iranian officials said they will continue to investigate and arrest more people who assisted the suicide bombers in any way. They discovered additional equipment for carrying out attacks at a residence used by the suicide bombers, including two explosive vests, two detonators and two remote-control devices, IRNA reported.
The U.S. military undertook a “decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad” when President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani, the Department of Defense said in a statement issued shortly after the action.
Soleimani led a Quds Force that Washington says killed hundreds of U.S. and coalition service members and wounded thousands of others.
Soleimani coordinated several attacks on coalition force bases in Iraq, including a Dec. 31, 2019, attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, during the months prior to his assassination, U.S. defense officials said.
