Tehran
Weeping amid wails from a crowd of hundreds of thousands of mourners, Iran’s supreme leader on Monday prayed over the remains of a top Iranian general killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad, an attack that’s drastically raised tensions between Tehran and Washington.
Soleimani’s successor, Esmail Ghaani, stood near Khamenei’s side, as did Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other top leaders in the Islamic Republic.
Soleimani’s daughter, Zeinab, said his death would bring a “dark day” for the United States while speaking to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Tehran that stretched as far as the eye could see. “Crazy Trump, don’t think that everything is over with my father’s martyrdom,” Zeinab Soleimani said in her address broadcast on state television.
Iran has promised to avenge the killing of Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s drive to extend its influence across the region and a national hero among many Iranians, even many of those who did not consider themselves devoted supporters of the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers.
The coffins of the Iranian general and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also killed in Friday’s attack on Baghdad airport, were passed across the heads of mourners massed in central Tehran, many of them chanting “Death to America”.
One of the Islamic Republic’s major regional goals, namely to drive US forces out of neighbouring Iraq, came a step closer on Sunday when the Iraqi parliament backed a recommendation by the prime minister for all foreign troops to be ordered out.
“Despite the internal and external difficulties that we might face, it remains best for Iraq on principle and practically,” said Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned in November amid anti-government protests.
Iraq’s rival Shia leaders, including ones opposed to Iranian influence, have united since Friday’s attack in calling for the expulsion of US troops.
Esmail Qaani, the new head of the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards’ unit in charge of activities abroad, said Iran would continue Soleimani’s path and said “the only compensation for us would be to remove America from the region.”
Prayers at Soleimani’s funeral in Tehran, which will later move to his southern home city of Kerman, were led by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Soleimani was widely seen as the second most powerful figure in Iran behind Khamenei.—AP
