Dozens of People Arrested in Iran over Deadly Bombing Attack

Iranian authorities say they have arrested 35 people in six provinces in relation to the twin suicide bombings in the southeastern city of Kerman last week that claimed the lives of nearly 100 people.

The Intelligence Ministry said on January 11 that the main suspect who planned the bombing was a national of Tajikistan known by his alias Abdollah Tajiki, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He entered Iran last month by crossing its southeastern border, make the bombs, and left the country two days before the attack.

The report identified one of the bombers by his family name of Bozrov, saying he was 24 years old and had Tajik and Israeli nationality. It said he also arrived in Iran by crossing the southeastern border after receiving training by the Sunni extremist group Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan.

It said authorities were still trying to identify the second suicide bomber.

In its claim of responsibility, the IS group identified the two bombers as Omar al-Mowahed and Seif-Allah al-Mujahed.

The two blasts in Kerman on January 3 hit crowds at a memorial ceremony near the tomb for Qassem Soleimani, a top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. 

State media reported that 91 people were killed in the attack -- the bloodiest in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The IS group has in the past claimed responsibility for some terrorist attacks in Iran.

Soleimani had extensive ties to Iran-backed proxy groups across the Middle East and was seen by Washington as the mastermind behind deadly roadside bombings targeting US soldiers in Iraq.