Caught on Cam: Video Captures Horror of Iran's Kerman Blast That Killed Over 90 People

A video capturing the moment when the deadly explosion took place in Iran’s Kerman is making rounds on the internet. The explosion, which occurred in southern Iran on Wednesday, killed at least 91 people.

Many of the victims were part of a crowd commemorating the fourth anniversary of the passing of former Revolutionary Guards chief Qasem Soleimani. The memorial ceremony, held near Soleimani’s tomb, was marred by the twin bomb blasts. Though the footage of the Kerman bomb blast was said to be released by Iranian security agencies, News18 could not independently verify it.

On Friday, Iranian authorities said that security forces had arrested 11 people suspected of involvement in two bomb blasts. This comes after Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kerman on Wednesday. Iran’s intelligence ministry said in a statement security forces detained two people for providing support to the two suicide bombers in Kerman and nine others based in other parts of Iran who were suspected of links to the incident.

The bombings were the deadliest such attacks in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. As victims were buried on Friday, mourners wept over their coffins and crowds chanted “revenge, revenge,” state TV showed. Nearly 100 people were killed in the blasts at a memorial service for military commander General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a U.S. drone.

The Intelligence Ministry said its agents seized explosive devices and raw material, explosive vests, remote-control devices, detonators and thousand of pellets used in explosive vests, Reuters reported. One of the suicide bombers was identified as a Tajik national, it said.

Islamic State said on Thursday two of its members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered for Soleimani’s memorial. “We will find you wherever you are,” Revolutionary Guards commander Major-General Hossein Salami said at the funeral in Kerman’s Imam Ali religious centre. President Ebrahim Raisi said in a televised address. “Our forces will decide on the place and time to take action”.

(With agency inputs)