‘At least 50 killed’ in explosions near tomb of Iranian Guards commander Qassem Soleimani during ceremony

At least 50 people have been killed at a cemetery in Iran where a ceremony was being held to mark the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani, an official has told Reuters news agency.

State media reports added there were two explosions at the site in the city of Kerman where the former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander is buried.

Hundreds of people had reportedly gathered at the site, with 40 people also said to have been wounded, according to run IRNA news agency.

An Iranian official described the explosions as “terrorist attacks”, state media reported.

It comes a day after Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al Arouri died in an explosion in Beirut.

Soleimani, once Iran’s top military general, was assassinated in a US drone strike during a visit to Iraq in 2020 to meet then-prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

The drone strike caused a major diplomatic crisis between the US and Iran, leading to retaliatory rocket strikes against US military sites in Iraq and pushing the two countries to the brink of war.

More than a million people took to the streets for the funeral – leading to a stampede in which 56 mourners were killed.

Having served in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani became one of the country’s top commanders, often touted as the second most powerful figures, behind only Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei,

He was leader of the Quds Force – an IRGC division responsible for spying and military operations outside of Iran.

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