AceBreakingNews – Two explosions have killed at least 103 people and injured more than 170 others at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a 2020 US drone attack, Iranian officials say.

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Iranian state television reported a first and then a second explosion during an anniversary event at the cemetery where Mr Soleimani is buried in the south-eastern city of Kerman.

“The blasts were caused by terrorist attacks,” state media quoted a local official in the Kerman province as saying.

An unnamed official told the state news agency IRNA, “two explosive devices planted along the road leading to Kerman’s Martyrs’ Cemetery were detonated remotely by terrorists”.

Babak Yektaparast, a spokesperson for Iran’s emergency services, was reported earlier as saying 73 people had been killed and 170 injured.

IRNA said later that at least 103 people had been killed.

Footage suggested 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 semi-official Nournews had said earlier that “several gas canisters exploded on the road leading to the cemetery”.

Some Iranian news agencies said the number of wounded people was much higher.

State TV showed Red Crescent rescuers attending to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Mr Soleimani’s death.

“Our rapid response teams are evacuating the injured … But there are waves of crowds blocking roads,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent told state TV.

Kerman’s deputy governor, Rahman Jalali, called the attack “terroristic”, without elaborating.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

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

The US assassination of Mr Soleimani in a drone attack at Baghdad airport and Tehran’s retaliation by attacking two Iraq military bases that house US troops brought the United States and Iran close to full-blown conflict in 2020.