Two explosions occurred in the city of Kerman, where Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani is buried.
Iran has vowed revenge after more than 100 people were killed in two explosions near the tomb of a general.
At the time of the explosions a ceremony was being held in the city of Kerman to mark the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi said the attack was “heinous and inhumane”, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed to get revenge.
According to state media, he said: “Cruel criminals […] must know that they will be strongly dealt with from now on and […] undoubtedly there will be a harsh response.”
Kerman’s mayor, Saeed Tabrizi, told Iran’s state-run ISNA news agency that the blasts took place about 10 minutes apart.
Local media reports suggest more than 140 people were injured.
Kerman’s deputy governor Rahman Jalali described the blasts as “terroristic attacks” – without elaborating on who could be behind them.
The United States has said it was not involved in the explosions in Iran in any way and has no reason to believe Israel was either.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon, has blamed Israel for the explosions and said those who died were “targeted”.
The Hezbollah leader also paid tribute to Soleimani and said: “Even in his tomb, he is living. In his martyrdom, his life has become stronger, more present.
“We see him in our rockets, in our homes, in the tears of the children.”
Soleimani, once Iran’s top military general, was assassinated in a US drone strike during a visit to Iraq to meet then prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, quoting two unnamed sources, reported that “two bags carrying bombs went off” at the site and that the “perpetrators … of this incident apparently detonated the bombs by remote control”.
Tehran has enemies both internally and externally.
Israel has in the past been accused of carrying out drone strikes on Iranian military facilities, while Sunni extremist groups such as Islamic State have carried out bombings, often on civilian targets, in the majority Shia nation.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s blasts.
It comes a day after Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al Arouri died in an explosion in Beirut.
