Iran revises down blasts death toll to 84

Iranian authorities on Thursday said twin blasts in the country's south killed 84 people the previous day, revising down an earlier toll from the explosions at a top general's commemoration.

Tehran's official news agency IRNA quoted Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying that "according to forensic statistics, the number of martyrs from this incident has been announced as 84 so far."

The revised death toll was also confirmed by the head of Iran's emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, who said the earlier tally of 95 killed was due to the fact that some bodies had been dismembered and counted "several times."

Miadfar said 284 had been injured in what authorities labelled a "terrorist attack" in the southern city of Kerman. He added that "195 are still hospitalized."

The blasts on Wednesday ripped through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 US strike in Baghdad.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the blasts came amid high tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.

An Iranian official blamed Israel and the United States for the attack. Washington however has rejected suggestions of either nation's involvement.

"The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist (Israeli) regimes, and terrorism is just a tool," the Iranian president's political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi, wrote on X.

Tehran regularly accuses its arch-foe Israel and the United States of inciting unrest in the country.

In December, Iran executed five people convicted of collaborating with Israel.

Beyond fighting a long shadow war with Israel, Iran is also battling various jihadist and other militant groups who have claimed multiple attacks in the country over the years.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "evil and criminal enemies" of the Islamic republic for the attack and vowed a "harsh response."

Condemnations poured in from neighbouring countries including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates as well as the European Union and Russia.

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East. He remains a revered figure in Iran and parts of the wider Middle East.

Wednesday's bomb blasts were Iran's deadliest since a 1978 arson attack in the southwestern city of Abadan killed at least 377 people at the Cinema Rex.
Source: AFP