Entire terrorist team involved in Kerman attack arrested: Prosecutor

All terrorists involved in the recent deadly attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman have been arrested, says the city's Prosecutor Mehdi Bakhshi.

Bakhshi revealed the information in a televised interview on Saturday, three days after the terrorist attack.

"Thirty-two people have been arrested in [connection with] Kerman [terrorist] crime case and are going through preliminary interrogations," he was quoted by IRNA as saying.

In addition, the judicial official added, as many as "16 bombs have been discovered throughout Kerman Province" whose explosive power was more than the suicide vests used in the Wednesday attack.

The terrorist bombings, which were claimed by the US-backed Daesh Takfiri group, were carried out near the burial site of Iran’s late anti-terror Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom. The blasts left 89 people, including 76 Iranians and 13 Afghans, martyred and 286 others wounded, some of them in critical condition.

Bakhshi dismissed rumors that the explosives used during the attack were placed in trash cans and were remotely detonated, saying both bomb blasts were conducted by suicide bombers, one of whom was from Tajikistan.

Emphasizing that terrorists were not able to plant any explosives inside the cemetery where martyrs are buried, the prosecutor said, "Over the recent months, as many as 23 Daesh terrorists ready to carry out suicide attacks have been arrested across Kerman Province."

The prosecutor noted that the province had to deal with a high number of threats during this year's martyrdom anniversary of Lt. General Soleimani, amid reports about potential terror attacks by Daesh and the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq terrorist cult.

"Therefore, the entire province was mobilized" to counter any possible threats, he said.

Bakhshi added that the mobilization included the Intelligence Ministry as well as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Intelligence Organization and even the Army, which monitored small air vehicles to a radius of several kilometers and there were also special sniffer dogs to detect any explosives

The prosecutor dismissed allegations that this year's anniversary did not feature as much security precautions as the previous year's.

He asserted that this year's event was marked with more preventive security measures and a higher number of security forces were deployed, while ample use was also made of thermal cameras and surveillance drones.

ME