Islamic State claims responsibility for deadly attack in Iran, as ...

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 US drone strike, the worst militant attack to strike Iran in decades as the wider Middle East remains on edge. 

Key points:The Islamic State group claimed two men carried out the attacks with explosive vestsThe statement did not identify which arm of the Islamic State group carried out the assaultHigh-casualty suicide bombings have been a tactic for Islamic State militants

The militant group made the claim on social media.

Wednesday's attack in Kerman killed at least 84 people and injured another 284.

It targeted a ceremony honouring Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani, held as an icon by supporters of the country's theocracy and viewed by the US military as a deadly foe who aided militants who killed American troops in Iraq.

The Islamic State group claimed the two attackers' names were Omar al-Mowahed and Seif-Allah al-Mujahed.

The claim said the men carried out the attacks with explosive vests.

However, the alleged statement did not identify which arm of the Islamic State group carried out the attack.

High-casualty suicide bombings long have been a tactic for the Islamic State group militants.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the claim.

A report by the state-run IRNA news agency, later aired by state television, quoted an unnamed "informed source" for the information on the suicide bombing.

The outlets quoted the official as saying that surveillance footage from the route to the commemoration at Kerman's Matryrs Cemetery clearly showed a male suicide bomber detonating explosives.

The blasts killed at least 84 people and injured hundreds more.(Tasnim News Agency via AP)

The official said the second blast "probably" came from another suicide bomber, though it hadn't been determined beyond doubt.

The Iranian state media reports also gave new distances for how far apart the blasts happened, describing them as occurring 1.5 kilometres and 2.7 kilometres away from General Soleimani's crypt.

The official said the bombers likely chose the locations because they were outside the security perimeter for the commemoration.

An early death toll of 103 was twice revised lower after officials realised that some names had been repeated on a list of victims, health authorities said.

Many of the injured were in critical condition, however, so the death toll could rise.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi spoke to ISNA news agency about bolstering security over its porous borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said authorities had identified "priority points to block along the border" with the two countries, which has long been a key access point for militant groups, drug smugglers and irregular migrants.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday blamed "evil and criminal enemies" of the Islamic republic, without naming them, and vowed a "harsh response".

ABC/wires