US warned Iran of terror threat ahead of twin suicide bombings in Kerman
Al Jazeera
ISIL (ISIS) claimed responsibility for attack in the southeastern city that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores.
The United States government had privately warned Iran that ISIL (ISIS) was preparing to carry out a terrorist attack ahead of the coordinated suicide bombings that killed nearly 100 people in the southeastern city of Kerman.
The confidential alert came after the US acquired intelligence that ISIL’s affiliate in Afghanistan was plotting to attack Iran, a US official said on Thursday.
“The US government followed a longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy that has been implemented across administrations to warn governments against potential lethal threats,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “We provide these warnings in part because we do not want to see innocent lives lost in terror attacks.”
On January 3, two suicide bombings in Kerman were carried out during a memorial for slain commander Qassem Soleimani, killed in a US drone attack in 2020.
Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in a strike in Iraq ordered by then-US President Donald Trump.
