US Intelligence: ISIL Branch from Afghanistan Behind Explosions in Iran

(Patria) - Intercepted communications data collected by the United States has confirmed that an ISIL branch in Afghanistan carried out two bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people, two sources familiar with the intelligence told Reuters on Friday.

“The intelligence is clear and indisputable,” said one source.

That source and another, both of whom requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the intelligence included intercepted communications without providing further details. The collection of intercepted conversations had not been previously reported.

ISIL claimed responsibility on Thursday for the bombings on Wednesday, saying two operatives wearing explosive suicide vests carried out the attack during a commemoration for Qassem Suleimani, a general killed in Iraq in a US drone strike in 2020.

The group, however, did not specify that its Afghanistan-based branch, known as ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K), was responsible for the bombings in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman.

“The US has pretty clear information” that ISIL-K carried out the attack, the first source said.

Iran said on Friday that security forces had arrested eleven people suspected of involvement in the attack and seized explosives and vests.