On Tuesday, two explosions detonated minutes apart killed at least 103 people, and wounded 188 others at a commemoration for a prominent Iranian general who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
A picture taken from the plain of Khiam shows a man waving an Iranian flag as smoke rises from burning dry grass, following skirmishes between Lebanese youths and Israeli soldiers, at a rally to mark the 23rd anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, on May 25, 2023.
No group has come forward to claim responsibility for the attack but Iranian state media called it "terroristic," according to the Associated Press. The blasts took place in a city called Kerman, which is approximately 510 miles southeast of Tehran, the capital of Iran.
Israel has attacked Iran on several instances, most recently over its nuclear program, and has conducted targeted assassinations as well. However, there have been no incidents on historic record in which Israel has carried out attacks of this nature.
General Qassem Soleimani was the head of the Revolutionary Guard's even more elite Quds Force. The explosions occurred near his gravesite, according to state-sponsored media.
Footage shows the second explosion occurred 15 minutes after the first, a tactic used by militants in Iraq and Afghanistan and is used to target first responders and inflict even more casualties.
Though facts are still trickling in, Iran has supported Hamas and Hezbollah and is alleged to be supporting the Houthi rebels of Yemen as well. Soleimani was accused by the United States of giving Iraqi combatants access to roadside bombs with the ability to penetrate U.S. armor, which made him a celebrity in Iran.
But Who Was Soleimani?
His death was carried out by a drone strike authorized by the Trump administration.
He is said to be responsible for propping up the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad when the Arab Spring of 2011 threatened his administration. He was a veteran of the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s and ascended through the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Forces.
Analysts believe he was responsible for most of Iran's clandestine military actions abroad, as well.
In 2020, a stampede at his funeral resulted in the deaths of 56 people while more than 200 others were injured in a procession of thousands of well-wishers and onlookers.
HNGN.com will keep an eye on this breaking story and update our readership as further details become available.
