Bombing Death Victims In Iran Revised From 103 To 84 Dead

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - The death toll from two Wednesday bombings in southeastern Iran was revised to 84, with 284 others injured, officials said Thursday morning.

Minister of Home Affairs Ahmad Vahidi said that based on forensic evaluation, to date a total of 84 people have died.

Many of the injured victims are still in critical condition. This, he said, might increase the number of dead victims.

A total of 220 injured victims have been treated in various hospitals in the mountainous province, the minister said, adding that the situation had returned to normal.

There were two devastating explosions that hit Kerman City on Wednesday, in the vicinity of the cemetery where former Iranian military commander General Qassem Soleimani was buried.

Thousands of people gathered there to commemorate Soleimani's four-year death, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC), who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

The cause of the explosion is still being investigated by a number of security agencies. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest attack in the history of post-1979 Iran.

On Wednesday, January 3, several officials said the death toll was 103 people and the number of injured victims was 140.

Head of the Medical Emergency Organization in Kerman, Sayyed Mohammad Saberi, then spoke to state TV on Thursday, confirming the revision of the death toll from 103 to 84 people.

He said many bodies were disabled as a result of the devastating bombing, causing inaccuracies in the calculation of fatalities, which were later revised by forensic experts.

Speaking at an event in Tehran on Wednesday, President Ebrahim Raisi said that the perpetrators of the "worse acts" would be "immediately identified and punished" by the country's security and law enforcement agencies.

He also criticized the US and Israel for their "crimes" and said they would "pay the consequences," without directly accusing them.