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Bombings kill more than 100 in Iran as polarizing military figure honored

January 3, 2024
Two bombs exploded minutes apart, rocking the city of Kerman, Iran, about 510 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran, Wednesday, Jan. 3. The blasts killed more than 100 people, injured dozens more and left countless people running for safety.

The second bomb sent shrapnel into a screaming crowd fleeing the first explosion.

The gathering marked the fourth anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force. Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. The blasts occurred near his gravesite as thousands of people lined up for the event.

Moments later, the area turned into a chaotic scene. Wounded laid on the ground as first responders scrambled to tend to the injured and dead.

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahdi told state television that the second blast killed and wounded the most people.

According to The Associated Press, a delayed second explosion is often used by militants to target emergency personnel who are responding to the scene, inflicting more casualties. Screams of people trying to escape could be heard on state TV. Officials said some people were hurt racing from the scene.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for what appears to be the deadliest militant attack to target the country since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, has many enemies who could be behind the assault, including exiled groups, militant organizations and state actors.

The deadly bombings come as Iranian-backed groups have intensified confrontation with Israel and the U.S. amid the war in Gaza.

While Israel has carried out attacks in Iran over its nuclear program, it has conducted targeted assassinations, not mass casualty bombings.

According to The Associated Press, Sunni extremist groups including the Islamic State group have conducted large-scale attacks in the past that killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran, though not in a relatively peaceful Kerman.

Iran has also seen mass protests in recent years, including those over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022. Iran has also been targeted by exile groups in attacks dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military operations. He’s hailed as a national icon among supporters of the country’s theocracy. Soleimani also helped secure Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government after the 2011 Arab spring protest.

The uprisings against Assad eventually turned into a civil and regional war, which is still raging on. The general also killed U.S. troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, arming militants with roadside bombs used to kill and maim service members. Following the attacks, American officials called for his death.

A drone strike launched by the Trump administration in eventually killed Soleimani after escalating incidents followed by America’s 2018 unilateral withdrawal from Iran with world powers. The polarizing military figure has drawn large processions in the past. During his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out in Kerman, killing 56 people and injuring more than 200 others.
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Iran reroutes soccer star’s flight, pursues high-profile protest supporters

December 28, 2022

As protests on the streets of Iran continue, the so-called Islamic Republic is going after one of its high-profile athletes. An Iranian former soccer legend, Ali Daei, had his flight redirected mid-air as he was traveling to Dubai with his family. According to local reports, Iranian authorities are barring them and other high-profile figures from leaving the country over their outspoken support for widespread protests on the ground.

It’s been over a hundred days now since crowds like these flooded the streets of Iran. The protests were sparked in part by the death of Mahsa Amini, the woman who died in police custody.

It’s being called one of the largest anti-government demonstrations Iran has seen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution which brought clerics into power. Human rights organizations say at least 500 people have been killed in these protests. And more than 18,000 have been arrested so far.

The Iranian regime has also executed at least two people involved in the protests, sparking further condemnation by human rights groups.

While polling shows a significant fraction of Iran supports regime change, experts disagree as to whether Iran is in a position to effect that at this moment amid economic tensions. What is clear is that these protests have fundamentally changed the relationship between the state and the Iranian people.
Amid protests, Biden vows to ‘free Iran’

November 4, 2022

President Biden told a crowd of supporters that the U.S. is going to help free Iran. Iran wants Russia to help it develop nuclear weapons. And Iran may be moments away from launching an attack on Saudi Arabia.

It was quite a week of developments for Iran, as the Islamic Republic stands on the brink of another potential revolution. In mid-September, a young Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini died while in police custody. She’d been arrested by Iran’s Morality Police for allegedly wearing her head scarf wrong. Since then, thousands of people have been protesting in the streets against what they call a repressive regime. Most of the protests are led by young people and are largely non-violent.

However, that hasn’t stopped Iranian police from killing more than 200 people and arresting more than a thousand. Iranian-Americans are intensifying their calls on the Biden administration to cease all talks of a new nuclear agreement with Iran.

At a campaign rally Thursday, President Biden responded to supporters in the crowd holding up “Free Iran” messages.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to free Iran,” Biden said. “They’re going to free themselves pretty soon.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was quick to criticize Biden’s comments on Friday. Speaking at a rally to mark the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Raisi said, “Iran was freed 43 years ago and is determined not to be captured by the U.S.”

The breakdown in an already tenuous relationship between the U.S. and Iran is already having ripple effects.

Both the Saudi and U.S. forces in the region went on high alert this week. Intelligence reports indicated Iran was preparing to attack Saudi Arabia for helping the U.S. foment dissent in Iran. Iran is also trying to take advantage of growing ties with Russia.

According to CNN, U.S. intelligence reports said Iran has been asking Russia for help in both obtaining and making nuclear materials.

Russia had been a partner in the global effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Since the two countries now share a pariah-state status, however, it seems their relationship is growing a bit more complicated.
China, Iran suppress protests of zero-COVID-19 policy, woman’s death

October 13, 2022

China and Iran have been caught trying to squash protests over China’s zero-COVID-19 policy and the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police respectively. In China’s case, the protest came in the form of banners criticizing the government hung from a busy intersection in Beijing.

China’s internet censors moved quickly to scrub social media posts about the banners Thursday. Pictures of the banners can still be found on Twitter, which is blocked in China.

“No COVID test, we want to eat. No restrictions, we want freedom. No lies, we want dignity. No cultural revolution, we want reform. No leader, we want votes. By not being slaves, we can be citizens,” the banners read, according to a translation provided on Twitter by a Dutch reporter based in Beijing.

Posts containing the hashtag Beijing were quickly blocked on China’s popular Weibo social media platform. Others said on Twitter that their accounts had been temporarily disabled on another major Chinese platform, WeChat, after they shared photos of the banners. A song called “Sitong Bridge,” named after the section of elevated roadway where the banner were reportedly hung, was removed from online music platforms.

The China protests came on the same day Iran’s president accused the United States of conducting a “failed policy of destabilization” targeting his nation in the wake of protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. She had been detained, accused of not wearing her hijab properly.

“The Iranian nation has invalidated America’s military option, and has also, as the Americans themselves have admitted, brought the policy of sanctions and maximum pressure a humiliating failure,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Thursday. “Now, following America’s failure in militarism and sanctions, Washington and its allies have resorted to the failed policy of destabilization.”

Protests over Amini’s death have lasted for weeks, spreading across at least 19 Iranian citied Wednesday. Iranian Education Minister Yousof Nouri offered the first confirmation that school-age children had been arrested amid the protests. According to the newspaper Shargh, he declined to offer a figure for those arrest, only saying those detained had been put “in a psychiatric center,” not in jail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Iran woman dies following arrest for not wearing hijab, feminist protests erupt

September 23, 2022

22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained last week by Tehran’s morality police, accused of not wearing her hijab properly. The hijab, a head covering worn by some Muslim women, has been mandatory in Iran since 1979. The United Nations Human Rights Council said Iran’s morality police have been cracking down on women they accuse of not wearing the hijab properly, the Associated Press reported. Amini died following her detainment. It is this one ripple that has caused a wave of feminist protests and outcries, both in Iran and around the globe.

Days of street protests in numerous Iranian cities have turned deadly as protesters have burned their headscarves and cut off their hair in defiance of strict dress codes. Los Angeles is home to the most people of Iranian descent outside Iran. Many in the community are now taking to the streets of L.A. in solidarity with protests against Amini’s death.

It’s not only U.S. citizens taking a stance but so has the U.S. government. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was sanctioning the morality police “for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors” among several other sanctions. The head of the morality police, Mohammad Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, and Haj Ahmad Mirzaei, who served as the head of its Tehran division during Amini’s detention and death, have been sanctioned. Senior leaders of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, Basij Resistance Forces, the Army’s Ground Forces and Law Enforcement Forces were given the same consequential sanctions.

“Mahsa Amini was a courageous woman whose death in Morality Police custody was yet another act of brutality by the Iranian regime’s security forces against its own people,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

While America has taken its side against Iran, some Iranian pro-government rallies are now taking place in support of its morality police. The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media. A few thousand people attended the protest in Iran‘s capital where they waved Iranian flags. An estimated 26 people have died in ongoing protests in a battle over pro-government and feminism.

While protests have erupted over Amini’s death, Iran is reporting the morality police had nothing to do with the young woman’s death. She was reportedly arrested on Sept. 13. She died Sept. 16. Police have denied that Amini was mistreated and say she died of a heart attack, while her family has said she didn’t have a heart condition and was healthy, several media outlets have reported.

“She was transferred to a hospital that same day in a coma and died two days later from internal injuries,” the Treasury Department said. “Today’s action to sanction Iran’s Morality Police and senior Iranian security officials responsible for this oppression demonstrates the Biden – Harris Administration’s clear commitment to stand up for human rights, and the rights of women, in Iran and globally.”

Bombings kill more than 100 in Iran as polarizing military figure honored

Amid protests, Biden vows to ‘free Iran’

China, Iran suppress protests of zero-COVID-19 policy, woman’s death

Iran woman dies following arrest for not wearing hijab, feminist protests erupt

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Bombings kill more than 100 in Iran as polarizing military figure honored

Iran reroutes soccer star’s flight, pursues high-profile protest supporters

Amid protests, Biden vows to ‘free Iran’

China, Iran suppress protests of zero-COVID-19 policy, woman’s death

Iran woman dies following arrest for not wearing hijab, feminist protests erupt