2y ago

Almost 100 dead in blasts at Iran memorial for assassinated commander

www.theguardian.com

At least 73 dead in blasts at memorial for assassinated Iranian commander

Two explosions at Kerman ceremony marking anniversary of killing of Qassem Suleimani raise Middle East tensions further

More than 95 Iranians were killed and scores more injured in a terrorist attack at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate the assassination of a top general, further heightening tensions in the increasingly volatile Middle East.

The explosions came at a memorial ceremony in Iran marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s al-Quds force, and it was not clear whether either of Suleimani’s principal regional adversaries – Israel or Islamic State – were responsible for the carnage.

Iran’s new minister of interior, the hardliner Ahmad Vahidi, did not immediately attribute blame for the attack and no side claimed responsibility for the deadliest single terrorist incident since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The US state department said it had no reason to believe Israel was involved.

An early death toll of 103 was revised down, but Iran’s health minister, Bahram Einollahi, said many of the wounded were in critical condition and the toll could rise.

73 comments

It's fucked up the most likely reason is Israel is trying to draw other countries into their war so they have an excuse to call in their allies...
This shit might really start WW3, and it's all going to be because the western world supported a far right ethnostate regardless of the evil they commit.
Give someone like that a blank check on rationalizing and literal billions in aid a year and this has always been inevitable.
Especially since the next president is Biden or trump. Neither one will even try to reign in Netanyahu
- Iran is also a far-right ethnostate.
  A far-right ethnostate that murder, rapes, and terrorises women, children, and men for “morality”.
  A far-right ethnostate that tried to draw Yemen and Lebanon into the war by launching proxy attacks.
  For those who actually oppose far-right ethnostate, let’s make sure we oppose all of them.
  
  An ethnostate how? There are plenty of Kurds, Afghans, Azeris and others.
  
  Iran is a multi-ethnic society. What ethnicity is the ethno-state you imagine centered on? Persians? You know that General Soleimani wasn't a Persian? Or that Iran's supreme leader is an Azeri Turk? Or that the merchant class of Iran is not centered on Persians? How is this an ethno-state? Zionists sure like projection it seems....
- I'm sorry what? This is fault of the west? Really?
  Russia invades a country, middle east goes on terrorist rampage and its the west that's starting shit? Fuck off lol
  
  The west is certainly at fault for the Israel situation
  
  Who do you think created Israel?
  
  Everything is the fault of the US (or "west" if we're playing that game today) from the beginning to the end of time. When they've already decided what the answer is, all that's left is to force the facts to fit the narrative.
- Between Biden and Netanyahu isn't all that rosy: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/politics/biden-israel-losing-support-netanyahu/index.html
  And it didn't start just after the terrorist attack, and it isn't just Biden, remember that Bibi went all in for trump.
  
  Between Biden and Netanyahu isn’t all that rosy
  It is.
  You're taking that comment to mean Biden thinks they've gone to far with the genocide.
  “We’ll continue to provide military assistance to Israel until they get rid of Hamas, but we have to be careful – they have to be careful,” Biden said. “The whole world’s public opinion can shift overnight, we can’t let that happen.”
  Biden means the same thing he's literally been saying for 50 years.
  That hell support Israel no matter what, but Israel not paying attention to optics means that governments may face pressure from voters to stop supporting them.
  Biden doesn't think current events cross that line, but he's worried they're not doing enough propaganda.
  The only criticism he's made of Israel in 50 years of supporting them, is that they need to worry about public perception.
- Lots of big claims but no evidence. It's almost as if you're intentionally inviting a certain narrative...
- It isn't Isreal. There isn't a Hamas leader standing there. They killed him yesterday.
I'm not saying it's Mossad, but it's probably Mossad. There are much easier targets than the memorial for Qassem Suleimani: this is sending a message to Iran.
- While it's likely, it could also very well be something purely local.
  
  Are we doing that thing for the first day or so when we argue if it is intelligence, false flag, religious, ethnic supremacists, or mental illness and everyone picks the one they like the best?
- The amount of groups who have the reasons and means to pull this off is long. I agree that Mossad is high on the list, but Iraq is not far away from the top place, either. Then there are groups who did not like the generals clan, protesters against Iran in general, etc, etc.
  The whole region is a shit show waiting for the ventilator to fly through.
  
  Why would you write nonsense like this when you obviously know nothing at all about Iran or regional dynamics? Iraq is a close ally of Iran, so no, they're not "not far away from the top" of Iran's regional opponents. Also, those who don't like the general's 'clan'? WTF are you babbling about? Iran is not a clan-based society the way you seem to believe it is. I'm Iranian and the 'clan' of Soleimani is not a subject I've heard discussed ever. You seem to think the garbage spread by the Bushie's in the 2000's about the region is how things actually work. It's a pathetically uninformed attempt at sounding smart. Read a book maybe?
  There are three candidates for these attacks. Odds all clearly point towards the Israelis as the top suspects. However, it could also have been carried out by the MEK, or the Islamic State Khorasan. But even if it did, the likelihood is high that Mossad played a coordinating role in the operation. There's zero chance Soleimani's 'clan', whatever the fuck that refers to, was a factor in this terrorist attack.
- Suleimani's enemies have safety in numbers. Kurds, Saudis or Iraqis are some of the first that come to mind
I think I'm gonna start taking all my sick time now.
That's awful. Rest in peace to those who were killed.
I still am upset america never was sanctioned for this act of terror. They didnt "just" kill the general but also airport staff. In true american fashion the lives of innocents dont matter to america.
What a way to celebrate
- Imagine living in a free country and having access to pretty much every information you want and then making fun of people in an authoritarian dictatorship being blown up because they went to the memorial of the guy who was held up as a martyr and hero by their propaganda, probably more so than anyone else.
  Also really shows that you have no values when you think an attack like that on trumples would be no big deal, maybe even funny. Being radicalized and stupid doesn't mean you should die either.
  
  Would you offer the same compassion if this was in Germany 1944? A bunch of people suckered into propaganda celebrating the memory of a Nazi general?
  I’d hope not.
  Oh I don’t think it’d be no big deal, I think it would be amazing news to hear a bunch of trump supporters died.
  Being dangerous means you should die, Trump or Iran regime supporters are not simply people with different views they are actively wanting to kill people for thing such as being LGBTQ+.
- It's a memorial, not a parade. Your comment is scary.
  
  Still is a memorial
  
  Same difference. Only losers celebrate the military.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
State-run media in Iran cited Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for the country’s emergency service, as saying 73 people had been killed and 170 wounded.
Suleimani’s body is buried in the cemetery along with 1,024 other people regarded as martyrs, and the site has become a place of pilgrimage for supporters of the so-called “axis of resistance” against the US and the west.
Suleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020 and was seen as the leader directing Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and Syria.
Iran only recently said it had eradicated a group backed by the Mossad, the Israeli state secret service.
On 25 December, an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed a top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), prompting Tehran to threaten that Israel would “certainly pay” for its actions.
Iranian state media identified the commander as Razi Mousavi, a senior adviser of the Quds Force, saying he had been killed in an airstrike near the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The original article contains 377 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

73 comments