TEHRAN – The Islamic State jihadist group said Thursday that it carried out two bombings at a memorial ceremony in Iran for slain Revolutionary Guard General Qasem Soleimani, killing at least 84 people.

The IS claim came as Iran marked a day of national mourning for victims of Wednesday’s attacks.

In a statement on Telegram, IS said two of its members had “activated their explosive vests” among the crowds that came to honor Soleimani on the anniversary of his death in a targeted US drone strike in Baghdad four years ago.

Iranian investigators had already confirmed that at least the first explosion was the work of a “suicide bomber” and believed that the trigger for the second was “very likely another suicide bomber,” the official IRNA news agency previously reported, citing an “informed source “. .

Soleimani, who led the Quds Force’s foreign operations, was a staunch enemy of IS, a Sunni extremist group that has carried out previous attacks in Shiite-majority Iran.

The death toll was reduced from around 100 a day after an attack described by Iranian authorities as a “terrorist attack” that also injured hundreds near Soleimani’s grave in the southern city of Kerman.

Iran has been the victim of deadly attacks by jihadists and other militants in the past, as well as targeted killings of officials and nuclear scientists blamed on arch-enemy Israel.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi spoke to the ISNA news agency about strengthening security on the porous borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said authorities had identified “priority points to block along the border” with the two countries, which has long been a key entry point for militant groups, drug smugglers and irregular migrants.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday blamed “evil and criminal enemies” of the Islamic Republic, without naming them, and vowed a “tough response.”

Tensions in the region have risen in the wake of the Gaza war, sparked by the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which Tehran welcomed but denied any involvement.

President Ebrahim Raisi’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, Mohammad Jamshidi, accused on the social media platform “.

The United States rejected any suggestion that it or its ally Israel were behind the bombings, while Israel declined to comment.

“The United States was in no way involved, and any claim to the contrary is ridiculous,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

“We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion,” he added, expressing condolences to the victims of the “terrible” explosions and their families.

“DESPERATE ENEMY”

Regional tensions have increased since the Gaza war erupted, drawing Iranian-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7 and killed around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In response, Israel launched a relentless offensive that reduced swathes of the Gaza Strip to rubble and killed more than 22,300 people in Hamas-controlled territory, according to the Health Ministry.

Iranian authorities called for new mass protests after weekly prayers on Friday following the attacks in Kerman, where officials said those killed would be buried.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi revised the death toll to IRNA: “The number of martyrs… has so far been given as 84.”

The head of Iran’s emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, pointed to difficulties in identifying dismembered bodies and said some victims had been incorrectly counted “several times.”

He said 284 people were injured and “195 are still in hospital.”

Soleimani is revered by many Iranians and led Iran’s military operations in the Middle East. In 2020, millions attended his funeral.

Current Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani suspected that the crowd in Kerman was “attacked by bloodthirsty people provided by the United States and the Zionist regime.”

He pointed to two recent killings widely attributed to Israel – an attack on Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri in Beirut and the killing of senior Guards commander Razi Moussavi near Damascus in December.

“The killing of Aruri and people like Razi Moussavi and the crime in Kerman show how desperate the enemy is,” Qaani said.

Iran regularly accuses its arch-enemies Israel and the United States of inciting unrest, and authorities last month executed five people convicted of collaborating with Israel.

In July, Iran’s intelligence ministry said it had dismantled a network “linked to the Israeli spy organization” that had allegedly planned “terrorist operations” across Iran.

In September, the Fars news agency reported that a key IS-linked “agent” responsible for conducting “terrorist operations” had been arrested in Kerman.