Two bombs ripped through a crowd of mourners on Wednesday, killing at least 84 people and injuring at least 284 others, at a memorial for a top Iranian general killed by the U.S. in a 2020 drone strike, Iranian officials said.
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The attack, which no one claimed responsibility for, was the worst to hit Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran’s leaders swore to avenge the blasts, which happened as the Middle East was tense over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. The bombs went off minutes apart on Wednesday, rocking the city of Kerman, about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of Tehran, the capital.
The second bomb hurled shrapnel into a terrified crowd running away from the first explosion.The death toll was initially reported as 103, but it was lowered twice after officials found out that some names were duplicated on a list of victims and because some of the dead had severe injuries, health authorities said. Many of the injured were in critical condition, so the death toll might increase.
The event was to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. The bombs went off near his tomb as long lines of people came for the event.
Iranian state television and officials called the attacks bombings, but they did not give clear details of what happened right away. The attacks happened a day after a deputy leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was killed in a possible Israeli strike in Beirut.
The first bomb on Wednesday exploded around 3 p.m., and the other one exploded about 20 minutes later, the Iranian interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, told state television. He said the second bomb caused the most deaths and injuries.”
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