The group, which has struck before in Iran, has a long history of division with the country.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for the bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, a day before, during a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, according to a post on the extremist group’s official Telegram account.

The extremist group called the attack a “dual martyrdom operation,” and described how two militants approached a ceremony at the tomb of General Suleimani and detonated explosive belts strapped to their bodies “near the grave of the hypocrite leader.”

The general, a widely revered and feared Iranian military officer who was the architect of an Iranian-led and -funded alliance of Shiite groups across the Middle East, was assassinated four years ago in an American drone attack.

The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim organization, considers its mission to kill apostate Muslims, including Shiites. Iran, a majority-Shiite country, is led by a theocratic government in which Shiite clerics are in charge.

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  • Altofaltception@lemmy.world
    68·
    1 year ago

    This makes no sense. I’m not denying that IS did it, but just from an objective outsider, I can’t make sense of it.

    Yes, Sunnis and Shiites don’t get along. IS particularly hates Shiites. However, I would expect they would be temporarily united with Shiite Iran against a common enemy - Israel.

    • breakfastmtnOP
      11·
      1 year ago

      The bombing in Iran was the latest bloody episode in the Islamic State’s targeting of Iran, which it considers an irredeemable sectarian foe, one that, along with a U.S.-led coalition, had a hand in defeating the group in Syria and Iraq. It was General Suleimani who built a network of Shiite militias there to repel the group and personally directed efforts to fight it.

    • neeshie@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah isil is weird, they actually don’t seem to hate Israel that much, going as far as to collaborate with them militarily.