Iranians have been marking a day of mourning after twin bombings in the city of Kerman killed and wounded many people at a memorial for top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani four years since his assassination, raising tensions in the region.
At least 84 people were killed in the blasts, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Thursday, according to state news agency IRNA.
An earlier death toll of 103 was twice revised down after officials realised some names had been repeated on the victims’ list, and because bodies had been dismembered and counted “several times”, said Jafar Miadfar, the head of Iran’s emergency services.
More than 280 people were wounded in Wednesday’s attacks, with 195 still in hospital.
There has been no claim of responsibility for what appeared to be the deadliest attack to target Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution.
The blasts struck minutes apart, shaking Kerman, about 820km (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran. The second blast sent shrapnel into a screaming crowd fleeing the first explosion.
media’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tehran, said the mood in the country was one of confusion, with many having questions about what exactly happened.
“There’s no clear answer … whether this was a suicide bombing or the bombs were planted,” Hashem said on Thursday. “Of course, the main suspects here in Iran for the Iranian officials are the United States and Israel.”
The commemoration marked the fourth anniversary of the killing of Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in a US drone strike in Iraq ordered by then-President Donald Trump. The blasts took place near his gravesite as long lines of people gathered for the event.
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