The supreme leader was flanked by Soleimani’s son, the slain general’s replacement as Quds commander Esmail Qaani, President Hassan Rouhani, parliament speaker Ali Larijani and the Guards’ top commander Major General Hossein Salami.
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) shows him leading a prayer as the newly-appointed head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Esmail Qaani (2nd-L) performs the prayer over the caskets of slain Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Tehran University in the Iranian capital on January 6, 2020. (Photo by - / IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER'S WEBSITE / AFP)
Mourners packed the streets of Tehran on Monday to pay homage to top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani after he was killed in a US strike in Baghdad last week. Clutching portraits of their hero, the crowd gathered at Tehran University before supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over prayers for the slain general.
Soleimani, who spearheaded Iran’s Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike Friday near Baghdad airport.
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His assassination roiled up tensions among arch-enemies Tehran and Washington. Iran further rolled back its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal on Sunday, which was already in tatters since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in May 2018.
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VIDEO: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prays over the coffin containing the remains of top military commander Qasem Soleimeni in an emotional ceremony in Tehran pic.twitter.com/KkMzvtMnCG
— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 6, 2020
In freezing early morning temperatures, women in black walked alongside men holding up flags bearing the names of Shiite imams as they walked down Tehran’s Enghelab (Revolution) Street towards the university.
“Down with USA,” said a placard held up by a young woman wearing a black chadour. The procession was broadcast live on state television, with screens bearing a black ribbon across the top left-hand corner in a rare tribute.
Khamenei appeared to cry as he prayed over the flag-draped coffins containing the remains of Soleimani and five other “martyrs” killed in the strike.
The supreme leader was flanked by Soleimani’s son, the slain general’s replacement as Quds commander Esmail Qaani, President Hassan Rouhani, parliament speaker Ali Larijani and the Guards’ top commander Major General Hossein Salami.
People prayed together with Khamenei whose voice cracked as he spoke. “We must give a crushing response,” one of the mourners told AFP. “We must target whatever military base they have in the region. We must attack all that is in the range of our missiles,” said the 61-year-old businessman who gave his name as Afkhami.
The US drone attack that killed Soleimani was ordered by Trump, who said the Quds commander had been planning an “imminent” attack on American diplomats and forces in Iraq.
Mourners in Tehran formed a sea of black along Enghelab Street dotted with red Shiite flags and white signs. One of the placards held aloft by a man read “#hard_revenge”.
As they marched towards the university, a main artery of the Iranian capital, the mourners chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” and waved flags of Iraq and Lebanon among others.
The procession comes after Soleimani’s remains were returned to Iran on Sunday. They were paraded through the streets of the southwestern city of Ahvaz before being taken to second city Mashhad, in the country’s far northeast.
The Revolutionary Guards said the overwhelming number of mourners in Mashhad forced the cancellation of a ceremony that had been planned in Tehran on Sunday night.
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