the Afghan wing of IS is behind the explosions in Iran

US intelligence sources said that the Afghan wing of the radical group “Islamic State” (IS) was behind the explosions in Iran on January 3, which killed more than 100 people. The group, recognized as terrorist in many countries of the world, took responsibility for the terrorist attack the next day after it.

As reported by the Reuters agency, the American special services concluded that the Afghan IS units were involved in the terrorist attack based on wiretapping. According to them, this allows us to conclude that the organizers of the explosions were the Afghan group IG-Khorasan.

On January 3, a series of explosions took place at the cemetery in the Iranian city of Kerman, near the memorial to the general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qasem Suleimani, who was killed in 2020, on the anniversary of his death. 103 dead and more than 200 injured were reported. On this day, a memorial ceremony dedicated to the fourth anniversary of Suleimana’s death was held at the cemetery. The authorities of Iran regarded the incident as a terrorist attack.

On January 4, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the explosions, saying that they were carried out by two suicide bombers. Representatives of the group did not specify what goal they were pursuing. Aaron Zelin, an expert at the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy, suggested that the reason for the terrorist attack could be the enmity between Sunni Muslims, to whom the majority of IS supporters belong, and Shiites, the dominant branch of Islam in Iran.

Earlier, the Iranian mass media reported on demonstrations in memory of the dead, whose participants blamed Israel or the United States for the explosions. Both the United States and Israel have denied any involvement in the bombings.