Two explosions at Kerman ceremony marking anniversary of killing of Qassem Suleimani raise Middle East tensions further

More than 95 Iranians were killed and scores more injured in a terrorist attack at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate the assassination of a top general, further heightening tensions in the increasingly volatile Middle East.

The explosions came at a memorial ceremony in Iran marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s al-Quds force, and it was not clear whether either of Suleimani’s principal regional adversaries – Israel or Islamic State – were responsible for the carnage.

Iran’s new minister of interior, the hardliner Ahmad Vahidi, did not immediately attribute blame for the attack and no side claimed responsibility for the deadliest single terrorist incident since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The US state department said it had no reason to believe Israel was involved.

An early death toll of 103 was revised down, but Iran’s health minister, Bahram Einollahi, said many of the wounded were in critical condition and the toll could rise.

  • Quokka@quokk.au
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    10 months ago

    Iran is also a far-right ethnostate.

    A far-right ethnostate that murder, rapes, and terrorises women, children, and men for “morality”.

    A far-right ethnostate that tried to draw Yemen and Lebanon into the war by launching proxy attacks.

    For those who actually oppose far-right ethnostate, let’s make sure we oppose all of them.

    • AreaSIX @lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Iran is a multi-ethnic society. What ethnicity is the ethno-state you imagine centered on? Persians? You know that General Soleimani wasn’t a Persian? Or that Iran’s supreme leader is an Azeri Turk? Or that the merchant class of Iran is not centered on Persians? How is this an ethno-state? Zionists sure like projection it seems…

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        He clearly just meant “theocracy” which it is and makes no apologies about.

        Iran is an illiberal hellhole

        • AdeptusPrimaris@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 months ago

          A Theocracy and an Ethnostate are two different things. If he meant theocracy he would have used the word theocracy, but he didn’t. He used the word ethnostate

    • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      An ethnostate how? There are plenty of Kurds, Afghans, Azeris and others.