TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Explosions at an event honoring a prominent Iranian general slain in a U.S. airstrike in 2020 have killed at least 20 people and wounded 40 others, state-run media in Iran reported Wednesday.
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Dr. Mohammad Saberi, the head of Kerman emergency services, for the figure.
The blasts struck an event marking the the fourth anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force. who died in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. The explosions occurred near his grave site in Kerman, about 820 kilometers (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the blasts. Authorities said some people were injured while fleeing afterward.
Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy. His death has drawn large processions in the past. At his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 were injured as thousands thronged the procession.
