Huge crowds in Iran for Soleimani’s funeral

Photo: Collected

Tens of thousands of people packed the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday for the funeral of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in US air strike. 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers at the Tehran funeral, weeping at one point during the traditional Muslim prayers for the dead. 

Soleimani was assassinated on Friday in an air strike by the United States in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq on Friday on the orders of President Donald Trump.  

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), an Iran-backed umbrella organisation comprising several militias among several other people were also killed in the Friday's attack. 

Iran has vowed "severe revenge" for the death 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 scale of the crowds in Tehran shown on television mirrored the masses that gathered in 1989 for the funeral of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  

The coffins of the Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis 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 neighboring 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.  Read more