DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two explosions minutes apart Wednesday in Iran targeted a commemoration for a prominent general slain in an American drone strike in 2020, killing at least 103 people and wounding at least 141 others as the Middle East remains on edge over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for what Iranian state press called a “terroristic” attack shortly after the blasts in Kerman, about 510 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran.

While Israel has carried out attacks in Iran over its nuclear program, it has conducted targeted assassinations, not mass-casualty bombings. Sunni extremist groups including the Islamic State group have conducted large-scale attacks in the past that killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran, though not in relatively peaceful Kerman.

Iran also has seen mass protests in recent years, including those over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022. The country also has been targeted by exile groups in attacks dating back to the turmoil surrounding its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The blasts struck an event marking the the fourth anniversary of the killing of the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani, who died in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. The explosions occurred near his grave site at Kerman.

Iranian state television quoted a spokesman for the country’s emergency services, Babak Yektaparast, for the casualty figure. Authorities said some people were injured while fleeing afterward.

Footage suggested that the second blast occurred some 15 minutes after the first. A delayed second explosion is often used by militants to target emergency personnel responding to the scene and inflict more casualties.

Associated Press