On martyrdom operations – Vivian Yee, Hwaida Saad, Julian E. Barnes and Ronen Bergman in NYT:

‘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.’

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‘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.’

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‘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.’

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‘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.”’

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‘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.’

Read the article here.

The Sunni-Shia war, a remainder of the Iraq war is back, as far as it has ever completely disappeared.
Or to quote the German playwright and novelist Rainald Goetz: ‘The enemies of my enemies are also my enemies.’

The moment ISIS or ISIS affiliated groups strike in Europe the extreme-right will be jumping for joy.

In the meantime the war of all against all will continue, especially in this region.