The Islamic State announcement dovetailed with American intelligence assessment indicating that the attack, which killed 84 people, was most likely the work of the group.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for the bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, on Wednesday, according to a post on the extremist group’s official Telegram account.
On Telegram, the group called it a “dual martyrdom operation,” and described how two militants approached a commemoration ceremony at the tomb of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and detonated explosive belts strapped to their bodies “near the grave of the hypocrite leader,” referring to General Suleimani. The general, a widely revered, and feared, Iranian military and security leader, was assassinated four years ago in an American drone attack.
The statement identified the two attackers as Omar al-Mowahid and Sayefulla al-Mujahid.
The Islamic State announcement dovetailed with American intelligence assessments, which indicated that the attack was most likely the work of the Islamic State, according to four American officials, as well as with assessments by regional military officials.
Some Iranian leaders had initially appeared to blame Israel for the attack, stoking fears that the war in Gaza — in which Israel is battling Hamas, a Palestinian ally of Iran — would widen into a regional conflict. But Western officials had cast doubt on that theory, saying that although Israel is believed to have regularly carried out covert operations in Iran, they have typically been targeted operations against specific individuals, Iranian scientists or officials, or strikes to destroy nuclear or weapons facilities.
The Islamic State’s claims also contrasted with initial Iranian reports that the bombs had been placed in two bags and remotely detonated along the road to the cemetery in Kerman, in which thousands of people taking part in the commemoration were walking.
The bombing in Iran suggested a bloody resurgence for the group, which has been decimated by years of attacks from an American-led coalition in the region.
American officials said that it was unlikely that the Islamic State’s intention was to frame Israel for the bombings or set off a wider war. Instead, it was probably seizing an opportunity to hit an enemy: The Islamic State, a Sunni Islamist group, has long been opposed to Iran, which has a Shiite Islamic government and leads, funds and arms an alliance of Shiite groups across the Middle East.
Iran held a national day of mourning on Thursday to honor victims of the twin explosions, which occurred not only at a tense moment in the Middle East, but also on a highly symbolic day for some Iranians — the fourth anniversary of General Suleimani’s death. General Suleimani, the powerful military leader regarded as a malign force in the West, is revered among many Iranians, especially those who support the government.
Iranian officials had put the death toll for the two blasts at 103 on Wednesday. But the interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, said on Thursday that 84 had been killed, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency.
Speaking during a visit to a hospital that was treating people wounded in the explosions, Mr. Vahidi said the death toll might rise again because of the grave condition of some of the injured. A total of 284 were wounded in the attack, including 220 still hospitalized in Kerman, many of whom were in stable condition or requiring minor surgeries, he said, according to Tasnim.
Iran’s leaders continued denouncing what they called a terrorist attack and promising to punish the perpetrators. But they had not, so far, escalated their rhetoric against Israel.
“The blind and spiteful act was to induce insecurity in the country and take revenge on the love and devotion of the great nation of Iran, especially the zealous young generation, to the martyr Qassim Suleimani,” read a Thursday statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to Fars, another semiofficial news agency. The Revolutionary Guard Corps is the powerful military-security apparatus where General Suleimani was a top officer, heading the elite Quds Force, which handled external operations.
Six Israeli officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss such intelligence matters, strongly denied that Israel had any role in the attack.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several previous attacks on Iran, including most recently in October 2022, when a gunman killed 13 people at a shrine in the city of Shiraz.
Mick Mulroy, who served as a Pentagon official in the Trump administration, said the Islamic State had “no love lost” for Iran. “But it does seem like an odd time to launch an attack with the current conflict in Gaza and the unified Muslim support for the Palestinians,” he said.
Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York, said he suspected the Islamic State’s Khorasan affiliate, also known as ISIS-K, which is based in Afghanistan, as a likely perpetrator of the attack.
“ISIS-K has demonstrated both intent and capability to attack targets inside Iran proper,” Mr. Clarke said. “ISIS-K wants to attack Iran, because Tehran is the most prominent Shia power and the ire of ISIS-K’s highly sectarian agenda. More so than other ISIS branches, ISIS-K propaganda continuously focuses on denigrating Shia as apostates.”
The Telegram statement did not specify the Islamic State affiliate behind the bombings.
Mr. Clarke said the attack at the commemoration ceremony, a highly symbolic and sectarian target given General Suleimani’s stature as the architect of the Tehran-led Shiite axis in the region, fit the group’s method of attacks.
But even if Israel — one of Iran’s longtime archenemies — is not responsible, Iran “is likely to get a lot of propaganda mileage out of either directly blaming the Israelis” or letting Iranians believe that Israel was responsible, Mr. Clarke said.
Tasnim, the news agency, reported that the first explosion occurred at 3:04 p.m. Wednesday as people crowded the road leading toward General Suleimani’s tomb. The second blast came 13 minutes later, it said.
Another semiofficial news agency, IRNA, quoted a police spokesperson as saying that three police officers had been killed in the explosions while trying to help other victims.
The commemoration ceremony was held to mark the fourth anniversary of General Suleimani’s assassination in an American drone strike at Baghdad airport in January 2020. Similar ceremonies honoring the general are held annually.
Leily Nikounazar, Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger contributed reporting.
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