Toll of attack in Iran in honor of general rises to 91 dead

UA spokesman for the country’s emergency services, Babak Yektaparast, told TV that the most recent fatalities were an eight-year-old boy and a 67-year-old man who had been injured.

Yektaparast added that 102 people continued to be treated in hospitals, 11 of whom were in critical condition, according to the US agency AP.

Initially, the Iranian authorities released a death toll of 103, but the number was revised downwards due to errors in recording the identities of some of the victims.

In Wednesday’s attack, a suicide bomber detonated the explosives, and another was attacked 20 minutes later, when emergency services and other people were trying to help the injured.

The attack took place in Kerman, around 820 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tehran.

The attack targeted a tribute to General Qassem Soleimani of the Revolutionary Guard, killed in 2020 by an American ‘drone’ (remotely piloted device) attack, on orders from then President Donald Trump.

The double explosion took place near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque, where Soleimani’s tomb is located.

The intelligence ministry said on Friday that one of the two bombers was a Tajik national and that 11 people suspected of links to the attack had been detained.

A key figure in the Iranian regime, Soleimani, who has died aged 62, was also one of the country’s most popular public figures.

Soleimani, commander of an elite Revolutionary Guard force, was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as an icon among supporters of the Iranian theocracy, according to the AP.

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