The United States said on Thursday (January 25) that it had specifically sent alerts to Iran before bombings that killed 90 people in Kerman. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the twin blasts on January 3. The blasts took place during a memorial ceremony near the tomb of Qasem Soleimani, a top general who was killed in a drone strike carried out by the US in Iraq in 2020.
“Prior” to the Islamic State (IS) attack, the “US Government provided Iran with a private warning that there was a terrorist threat within Iranian borders,” a US official said on condition of anonymity as reported by AFP.
“The US Government followed a longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy… We provide these warnings in part because we do not want to see innocent lives lost in terror attacks,” the official said.
Reports in the US media said that the information that was passed on to Iran was specific enough for Tehran to take steps to stop the attack or lessen the death toll.
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Qasem Soleimani headed Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He was also a vital figure co-ordinating Iran’s influence in the region. Soleimani was a staunch enemy of the Islamic State, which is a Sunni extremist group and has been behind previous attacks carried out in Iran, a Shiite-majority nation.
In the aftermath of the bombings, the Islamic State said that two of its operatives activated explosive belts in “a large gathering of apostates, near the grave of their leader.”
Soleimani was an iconic figure in Iran and was revered by many Iranians. Millions of Iranians turned up at his funeral in the tear 2020.
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 1980 after the Islamic Revolution. The US accuses Iran of providing support to Palestinian militant group Hamas and also to Houthi rebels in Yemen, in addition to Lebanese Hezbollah and groups in Iraq.
(With inputs from agencies)
