Mehdi Ghasemi/ISNA/AFP via Getty
At least 73 people were killed and 171 others injured by explosions at a ceremony in Iran marking the fourth anniversary of the U.S. drone assassination of the country’s top general Qassem Soleimani on Wednesday, according to state media reports.
Local television reported that two blasts occurred near to the burial place of Gen. Soleimani, who served as head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, in the southeastern city of Kerman. Hundreds of people had assembled close to the cemetery when the explosions took place.
It’s not yet clear what caused the explosions, though a Kerman province official was quoted by state media as describing them as “terrorist attacks,” Reuters reports, adding that the semi-official Nournews agency had earlier said “several gas canisters exploded on the road leading to the cemetery.”