Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday led vast crowds in prayers in Tehran at the funeral of slain military commander Qassem Soleimani, publicly weeping for the general killed by a US drone strike.
Iranians, who state media said numbered in the millions, poured onto the streets of the Iranian capital to bid farewell to the commander of the Quds Force, the unit in charge of foreign operations of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The scale of the crowds in Tehran shown on television seemed to be the biggest since the 1989 funeral of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolution that set Iran on its political collision cause with Washington.
Photo: AP
Many Iranians considered Soleimani, who was a decorated veteran of the eight-year war with Iraq, a national hero. He was widely seen as the second-most powerful figure in Iran after Khamenei.
Khamenei’s voice cracked with emotion as he said prayers, forcing him to pause, state television showed.
Soleimani’s successor, General Esmail Ghaani, stood near Khamenei’s side, as did Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other top leaders in the Islamic Republic.
As the crowds chanted “Death to America,” one poster held aloft by a mourner read: “It is our right to seek a harsh revenge,” echoing comments by Iranian military and political leaders.
The coffins of Soleimani and the Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also killed in Friday’s attack, were draped in their national flags and passed from hand to hand across the heads of mourners in central Tehran.
The vast procession, which television footage showed blocking off entire streets of the capital, began at Tehran University and moved towards Azadi Square (Freedom Square).
“America and Zionism should know that my father’s martyrdom will lead to awakening ... in the resistance front and bring about a dark day for them and flatten their homes,” the commander’s daughter, Zeinab Soleimani, said in her address to mourners.
“The families of US soldiers in the Middle East will spend their days waiting for death of their children,” she said to cheers.
“Crazy [US President Donald] Trump, don’t think that everything is over with my father’s martyrdom,” she said.
Iran usually refers to Israel as the Zionist state and describes regional countries and other forces opposed to Israel and the US as a “resistance” front.
Iran’s allies in the region also attended the funeral, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who told the ceremony: “I declare that the martyred commander Soleimani is a martyr of Jerusalem.”
“Even killing Trump is not a sufficient vengeance, and the only thing that can pay for the blood of martyr Soleimani is completely expelling America from the region,” Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force chief Amirali Hajizadeh said in comments carried by Iranian media.
Ghaani made his own threat in an interview with Iranian state television aired yesterday.
“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger. Certainly actions will be taken,” he said.
“We promise to continue down martyr Soleimani’s path as firmly as before with help of God, and in return for his martyrdom we aim to get rid of America from the region,” Ghaani said
Additional reporting by AP
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