The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the deadly twin blasts near the burial site of slain military commander Qassem Soleimani in southern Iran, CNN reported on Thursday.
At least 84 people were killed and 284 injured in the blasts on Wednesday, in what was the deadliest attack in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
ISIS media wing Al-Furqan issued a statement on Thursday – more than 24 hours after the explosions – claiming two suicide bombers, who are brothers, had detonated their explosive vests as Shiite mourners gathered for the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Soleimani near his grave in his hometown of Kerman.
The statement, titled “And Kill Them Wherever You Find Them,” named the two bombers and said they targeted a gathering of “polytheists” near the grave of their “dead leader” Soleimani, who was eliminated in a US drone strike in Iraq in January of 2020.
The group offered no further proof and their account of the blasts differs from that given by Iranian media. The death toll provided by ISIS was also significantly higher than that reported by Iranian officials.
A senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday that the two explosions in Iran looked like a "terrorist attack" of the kind ISIS has been responsible for in the past.
Meanwhile, the United States rejected any suggestion that it or Israel were behind the blasts in Iran.
"The United States was not involved in any way, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
"We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion. We do express our sympathies to the victims and their loved ones who died in this horrific explosion," added Miller.