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AFP
Tehran
Black-clad mourners packed Iran’s second city Mashhad on Sunday as the remains of top general Qasem Soleimani were paraded through the streets after he was killed in a US strike.
“Iran’s wearing black, revenge, revenge,” they chanted as darkness fell and they followed a truck carrying Soleimani’s coffin towards the floodlit Imam Reza shrine. The mourners threw scarves onto the roof of the truck so that they could be blessed by the “blood of the martyr”.
Soleimani, who spearheaded Iran’s Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike on Friday near Baghdad airport. He was 62.
The attack was ordered by President Donald Trump, who said the Quds commander had been planning an “imminent” attack on US diplomats and forces in Iraq.
Soleimani’s remains had been returned before dawn to the southwestern city of Ahvaz, where the air resonated with Shiite chants and shouts of “Death to America” during a procession. People held aloft portraits of Soleimani, one of the country’s most popular public figures who is seen as a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The “million-man” turnout in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, forced the cancellation of a Sunday night ceremony in Tehran, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who urged citizens instead to attend a memorial on Monday at Tehran University.
Soleimani’s assassination ratcheted up tensions between arch-enemies Tehran and Washington and sparked fears of a new Middle East war. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” and declared three days of mourning.
Late on Saturday, Trump warned that America would target 52 sites “important to Iran & Iranian culture” and hit them “very fast and very hard” if American personnel or assets were attacked.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME”. Iran’s army chief said Trump’s threat was an attempt to distract the world from Soleimani’s “unjustifiable” assassination. “I doubt they have the courage to initiate” a conflict, said Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi. Iran’s communications minister, Mohammad Javad Jahromi, branded Trump a “terrorist in a suit” in a Twitter post.
Tehran
Black-clad mourners packed Iran’s second city Mashhad on Sunday as the remains of top general Qasem Soleimani were paraded through the streets after he was killed in a US strike.
“Iran’s wearing black, revenge, revenge,” they chanted as darkness fell and they followed a truck carrying Soleimani’s coffin towards the floodlit Imam Reza shrine. The mourners threw scarves onto the roof of the truck so that they could be blessed by the “blood of the martyr”.
Soleimani, who spearheaded Iran’s Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike on Friday near Baghdad airport. He was 62.
The attack was ordered by President Donald Trump, who said the Quds commander had been planning an “imminent” attack on US diplomats and forces in Iraq.
Soleimani’s remains had been returned before dawn to the southwestern city of Ahvaz, where the air resonated with Shiite chants and shouts of “Death to America” during a procession. People held aloft portraits of Soleimani, one of the country’s most popular public figures who is seen as a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The “million-man” turnout in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, forced the cancellation of a Sunday night ceremony in Tehran, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who urged citizens instead to attend a memorial on Monday at Tehran University.
Soleimani’s assassination ratcheted up tensions between arch-enemies Tehran and Washington and sparked fears of a new Middle East war. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” and declared three days of mourning.
Late on Saturday, Trump warned that America would target 52 sites “important to Iran & Iranian culture” and hit them “very fast and very hard” if American personnel or assets were attacked.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME”. Iran’s army chief said Trump’s threat was an attempt to distract the world from Soleimani’s “unjustifiable” assassination. “I doubt they have the courage to initiate” a conflict, said Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi. Iran’s communications minister, Mohammad Javad Jahromi, branded Trump a “terrorist in a suit” in a Twitter post.
