DUBAI, January 10. /TASS/. Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has confirmed that the two suicide bombers responsible for the terror attack in the city of Kerman had links to the Islamic State terrorist organization (outlawed in Russia).

"Terrorists who were Islamic State members illegally crossed [into Iran] from a neighboring country," the IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. He also confirmed that at least one of the two men was a Tajik national.

On January 3, twin blasts occurred in the Iranian city of Kerman during a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of General Qasem Soleimani’s death. Suicide bombers detonated explosive devices in a crowd of people. According to the Iranian interior ministry, the blasts claimed 89 lives. Twelve of those killed were Afghan citizens. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the terror attack.

General Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (an elite unit of the Iranian military), was killed in a US airstrike near Baghdad Airport on January 3, 2020.