Iran’s intelligence and security services are determined to uncover the person behind the twin blasts that killed 103 people at a memorial service for Iran’s former top military general Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian official said.

In particular, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, said that all the country’s intelligence, security and military services are being mobilized to uncover who is behind the blasts.

At least 103 people were killed, and 141 were injured, in the two explosions near the tomb of Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Soleimani in Kerman province, in what Iranian officials are calling a “terrorist attack.”
Some of the 141 injured are in critical condition.

Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, told state television that most of the casualties were from the second blast, which followed minutes after the first, as crowds gathered to help the injured. He said the situation in Kerman city is now under the control of the security and the army.

The blasts came four years after a US drone killed General Soleimani, the longtime commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ powerful Quds Force, at Baghdad airport.

Iranian officials reported on state media that two bombs placed in bags along the road to the cemetery in Kerman, Iran, exploded as a procession of people headed there to mark the four-year anniversary of the assassination of General Soleimani by the United States. The same officials said the bags appeared to have been detonated by remote control.

Given the sheer scale of the explosions, which state media described as a terrorist attack, the death toll is likely to rise.

Videos and photos from the scene of the explosions showed gruesome images with scattered corpses, wounded – among them children – to collapse on the ground.

Shortly before the explosions, videos showed a crowd of thousands of people walking along a street lined with food and drink stalls and flags while a prayer from the Koran played over loudspeakers. Then a huge explosion rocked the area. Screams filled the air and people scattered in all directions, according to the videos.

The Iranian president Ibrahim Raisi denounced the attack as a “cowardly” and “despicable” act.

“There is no doubt that the perpetrators of this cowardly act will soon be identified and punished for their heinous act by the relevant security and law enforcement forces,” the Iranian president said.