Sirens of war are sounding again in the Middle East after yesterday very dead attack yesterday in Kermanin southern Iran, a short distance from the tomb of the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Kasem Soleimani – who was killed four years ago by an American strike in Iraq– during a ceremony in his memory.

Two explosions among the large crowd that was gathered there – regime officials and citizens – resulted in dozens of people being killed

Iran’s official Irna news agency initially said 103 people were killed in the attack, while state television said 211 were injured, some of them in critical condition.

However Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Einolahi reviewed in 95 the number of dead, explaining that some names “recorded twice”.

The government of Iran declared today “day of national mourning». It’s about her deadliest attack in Iran since 1978according to the AFP file, when a fire caused by criminal activity in a movie theater in the city of Abadan claimed the lives of at least 377 people.

No claim of responsibility – ‘No comment’ from Israel – Blinken Middle East Tour

A political adviser to the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raishi, blamed it Israel and them USA to be responsible for the attack. “The responsibility for this crime lies with the American and Zionist regime, and terrorism is only a tool,” wrote Mohammad Jamsidi in X.

From his side the State Department called any suggestion of US or Israeli involvement in the attack “absurd”. “The US is not involved in any way”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “We have no reason to believe that Israel is involved,” he added.

The attack “It looks like terrorism, the kind that Islamic State has done in the past”said a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At the same time, Anthony Blinken is starting a new tour of the Middle East today, to try to prevent the war from spreading to the Gaza Strip.

The Israel has not commented on the attack. “We are focused on fighting the Hamas“, the representative of the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, answered a related question.

The Palestinian organization Hamas denounced “an act of terrorism (…) which seeks to destabilize the security of the Islamic Republic for the benefit of the agenda of the Zionist entity (s.s.: Israel)”.

He threatens Iran with a “strict response”.

The supreme leader of IranAyatollah Ali Khamenei, promised a “tough response” to the attacka “heinous and cowardly” action, as described by Iranian President Ebrahim Raishi who canceled his planned visit to Turkey for today.

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of a “an attack shocking in its cruelty and cynicism.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the EU, France, Germany, Jordan and Saudi Arabia condemned the attack.

“I condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest terms and express my solidarity with the Iranian people”the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said in a statement after a telephone conversation he had with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Mir-Abdollahian.