Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi joined mourners in the southern city of Kerman on Friday for the funerals of 89 people killed in twin blasts claimed by the Islamic State group, state media reported.
Suicide bombers struck crowds gathered near the tomb of storied Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani to mark the fourth anniversary of his killing in Baghdad in a targeted US drone strike.
The attack killed 89 people, who included many women and children as well as at least a dozen Afghans, state television said.
“We will find you wherever you are,” Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said at the funeral ceremony, addressing the bombers’ accomplices.
Raisi vowed to avenge the killings, adding: “The time and place will be determined by our forces”.
Iran’s intelligence ministry said one of the suicide bombers was a Tajik citizen while the identity of the other had yet to be determined.
“Nine other members of the terrorist group’s support network and its associates were identified and arrested in six provinces,” the ministry said in reference to IS.
Security forces also arrested two people on suspicion of putting up the suicide bombers in the Kerman suburbs, it added.
It sai ammunition, explosives vests, and remote control devices were found at the place where they stayed.
‘Mercenaries’
In a statement published Thursday on Telegram, the Islamic State group said two of its members “activated their explosives vests” at the gathering.
On Friday, rallies took place in major cities across Iran, including Tehran, Tabriz, Ahvaz and Bandar Abbas, “to condemn the terrorist attack,” state media said.
Despite the claim from IS, officials have continued to accuse Iran’s arch foes Israel and the United States of complicity in the attack.
IS “has disappeared nowadays”, Salami said, adding that its remaining jihadists “only act as mercenaries” for US and Israeli interests.
The United States rejected any suggestion that it or its ally Israel were behind the bombings, while Israel did not comment.
The president in his remarks also hailed Palestinian militant group Hamas for its deadly October 7 attacks on Israel which triggered a devastating retaliatory offensive against the Gaza Strip.
“We know that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood will bring about the end of the Zionist (Israeli) regime,” he said, using Hamas’s name for the war, now nearing its fourth month.
Friday’s funeral took place at the Emam Ali mosque in Kerman, where crowds gathered in front of dozens of coffins wrapped in the Iranian flag, state media said.
Mourners waved the national flag and the yellow flag of Iran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, alongside portaits of Soleimani.
During his visit, Raisi also paid his respects at Soleimani’s grave, state television said.
A staunch enemy of the jihadist group, Soleimani headed the Guards’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, overseeing Iranian military operations across the Middle East.
