Iran blasts: Tehran vows revenge, revises death toll from 103 to 84

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber vowed retaliation for explosions that took the lives of nearly 100 people at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020 in Iraq.

Speaking on the bloodiest attack since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he said “A very strong retaliation will be handed to them on the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani,” Mokhber told reporters at a hospital where some of the wounded were receiving treatment.

In a statement, Iran’s powerful Guards described Wednesday’s attack as a cowardly act “aimed at creating insecurity and seeking revenge against the nation’s deep love and devotion to the Islamic Republic”.

The powerful Guards also said the attack “strengthens the resolve to decisively and justly punish the perpetrators.”

Iran blamed Israel and the United States on Wednesday for twin bomb blasts, an allegation rejected by both Washington and Tel Aviv.

Tehran often accuses its arch-rivals, Israel and the United States, of backing anti-Iran militant groups.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed “evil and criminal enemies” of the country for the attack and vowed a “harsh response.”

Meanwhile, the death toll from Wednesday’s twin bombings in southeastern Iran’s Kerman city has been revised down to 84, with 284 others injured, officials said on Thursday morning.

Speaking to media people during his visit to Kerman, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that based on forensic evaluation, a total of 84 people have been declared dead so far.

Many of the injured people are still in critical condition, he hastened to add, which might push the death toll higher.