Islamic State Takes Responsibility for Deadly Bombings in Iran

The Islamic State claimed responsibility Thursday for the bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, a day before, during a memorial procession for Gen. Qassem Soleimani, according to a post on the extremist group’s official Telegram account.

The extremist group called the attack a “dual martyrdom operation” and described how two militants approached a ceremony at the tomb of Soleimani and detonated explosive belts strapped to their bodies “near the grave of the hypocrite leader.”

The general, a widely revered and feared Iranian military officer who was the architect of an Iranian-led and -funded alliance of Shiite groups across the Middle East, was assassinated four years ago in a U.S. drone attack.

The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim organization, considers its mission to kill apostate Muslims, including Shiites. Iran, a majority-Shiite country, is led by a theocratic government in which Shiite clerics are in charge.

In a statement, the Islamic State identified the two attackers as Omar al-Mowahid and Sayefulla al-Mujahid. The group is composed of local affiliates across the Muslim world, but it did not specify which regional organization was behind the bombings.

The bombing in Iran was the latest bloody episode in the Islamic State’s targeting of Iran, which it considers an irredeemable sectarian foe — one that, along with a U.S.-led coalition, had a hand in defeating the group in Syria and Iraq. It was Soleimani who built a network of Shiite militias there to repel the group and bolstered efforts by President Bashar Assad of Syria to fight it.

Some Iranian leaders had initially appeared to blame Israel for the attack, stoking fears that the war in the Gaza Strip — in which Israel is battling Hamas, a Palestinian ally of Iran — would widen into a regional conflict. But Western officials had cast doubt on that theory.

U.S. officials said that it was unlikely that the Islamic State’s intention was to frame Israel for the bombings or set off a wider war, as had been initially feared. Instead, it was probably seizing an opportunity to hit its longtime enemy.

Iran held a national day of mourning Thursday to honor victims of the twin explosions. Iranian officials had put the death toll at 103 on Wednesday. But the interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, said Thursday that 84 people had been killed.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .