Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on Qassem Soleimani’s mausoleum in the Iranian city of Kerman. However, this should not fool anyone – ISIS members are not what they used to be and will never stage a terrorist attack on their own. But a possible rise in tensions in the Middle East is beneficial for other players. ISIS had nothing to do with the Kerman attack, but there is speculation that the US and Israel forced it to claim responsibility, fearing Iranian retaliation.
ANSWER
In the immediate aftermath of the Kerman terror attack, many terrorism experts around the world pointed to the Islamic State-Khorasan, ISIS’s wing in Afghanistan, as the most likely culprit, based on its modus operandi and other elements. In the following days, the same organization credibly claimed responsibility for the attack, including releasing a video proving the Islamic allegiance of the two suspected suicide bombers to the current leader of the Islamic State. US intelligence also intercepted conversations between senior members of the terror group confirming their guilt.
By dismissing this entire body of evidence and pointing instead to Israel and the US, this disinformation rhetoric aims to promote the recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about alleged Western support for various terrorist organizations.
See other examples of such disinformation narratives, such as claims that the US has incited, funded, supported and protected Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in the war on terror, that the hand of the West is behind terrorism in Africa, that France trains, trains and equips terrorists in Africa or that the US is recruiting jihadists in Syria for terrorist attacks in Russia.
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Translation: Atina Pashova
