Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a message on Saturday offered condolences over the tragic death of dozens of Iranians in a truck bomb terrorist attack in Iraq and a train crash in north central Iran.
“I ask for God’s mercy on the souls of the dead and pray for the injured and express my condolences to the families of victims,” the Leader said in the message, IRNA reported. “Relevant authorities and officials, both in the domestic and foreign sectors, are expected to closely investigate the two incidents and give top priority to addressing the public’s concerns in this regard.”
A suicide truck bomb killed about 100 people, most of them Iranian pilgrims, at a petrol station in the city of Hilla 100 km south of Baghdad on Thursday, Reuters reported. The pilgrims were en route back to Iran from the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, where they had commemorated Arbaeen, which marks the end of a 40-day mourning period following Ashura, in which religious ceremonies are held to commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hossein (PBUH), and his companions in the 680 battle of Karbala.
The so-called Islamic State, the ultra-terrorist group that considers all Shias to be apostates, claimed responsibility for the attack in an online statement.
In another incident the following day, Forty-four people were killed and 103 injured when a passenger train collided with another at a station about 150 miles east of the capital Tehran.
