At least 100 killed in twin blasts at memorial event in Iran honouring General Qassem Soleimani

Two explosions minutes apart in Iran have reportedly killed at least 95 people and injured 141 at an event honouring the late prominent Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, according to state-run media.

People were struck as they gathered to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the killing of General Soleimani, who was the head of the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, who died in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.

The explosions occurred near his grave site in Kerman, about 820 kilometres (510 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.

Kerman's deputy governor, Rahman Jalali, called the attack “terroristic,” without elaborating who could be behind it.

No groups have come forward to claim responsibility.

Officials said some people were injured while fleeing afterwards.

Footage suggested that the second blast occurred some 15 minutes after the first.

A delayed second explosion is often used by militants to target emergency personnel responding to the scene and inflict more casualties.

The blasts come amid wider tensions in the Middle East over Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Iran has multiple foes who could be behind the assault, including exile groups, militant organisations and state actors.

Iran has supported Hamas as well as the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Who was Soleimani?

Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy.

He also helped secure Syrian President Bashar Assad's government after the 2011 Arab Spring protests against him turned into a civil, and later a regional, war that still rages today.

Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Soleimani’s popularity and mystique grew after American officials called for his killing over his help arming militants with penetrating roadside bombs that killed and maimed US troops.

A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognisable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but growing as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership.

A drone strike launched by the Trump administration killed the general - part of escalating incidents that followed America's 2018 unilateral withdrawal from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

Soleimani's death has drawn large processions in the past. At his funeral in 2020, a stampede broke out and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 were injured as thousands attended the procession.

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