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The two explosions at a ceremony in Iran on Wednesday looked like a “terrorist attack” of the kind Islamic State (ISIS) has been responsible for in the past, a senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
More scenes of chaos in Iran after several explosive devices were detonated at a ceremony at a cemetery marking the 2020 assassination of the country’s top commander, Qassem Soleimani. Officials in Iran believe the explosions were set by terrorists. #Iranblast #QassemSoleimani… pic.twitter.com/lCYqyuvF2X
— The Jewish Voice (@JewishVoice) January 3, 2024
The official, speaking to reporters, said “it does look like a terrorist attack, the type of thing we’ve seen ISIS do in the past, and as far as we are aware that is kind of, I think, our going assumption at the moment.”
Meanwhile, the United States rejected any suggestion that it or Israel were behind the blasts in Iran.
“The United States was not involved in any way, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, as quoted by the AFP news agency.
Iran:
Twin bombing in Kerman, Iran leave 103 dead & 141 injured
Two remote controlled bombs exploded in Kerman when hundreds of Iranians were commemorating death anniversary of General Qassem Soleimani #Qassem_Soleimani pic.twitter.com/0IuKpotsNB— Farzana Shah (@Jana_Shah) January 3, 2024
“We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion. We do express our sympathies to the victims and their loved ones who died in this horrific explosion,” added Miller.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Israel informed its allies that it was not involved in the explosions in Iran.
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Sources familiar with Israeli operations said that the style of operation does not match the pattern of the attacks attributed to Israel in Iran in the past, which were often more precise, and aimed at specific individuals or military infrastructure in the country.
At least 103 people died in the explosions which took place as mourners gathered on the fourth anniversary of the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Soleimani was eliminated in a US drone strike in Iraq in January of 2020.
