TEHRAN: Mourners flooded the Iranian cities of Ahvaz and Mashhad on Sunday, weeping and beating their chests in homage to top general Qasem Soleimani who was killed in a US strike in Baghdad. They chanted as they packed Ahvaz’s streets and a long bridge spanning a river in the southwestern city to receive the casket containing Soleimani’s remains. As chants resonated in the air, people held portraits of the man seen as a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and for spearheading Iran’s Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.
In the northeastern city of Mashhad, scores took to streets around the Imam Reza shrine and, addressing the US, chanted “Be afraid of your own shadow.’’
Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike on Friday near Baghdad airport, shocking the Islamic republic. 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.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” and declared three days of mourning.
But Trump warned late on Saturday that America was targeting 52 sites “important to Iran & Iranian culture” and would hit them “very fast and very hard” if the country attacks American personnel or assets.
In a series of sabre-rattling tweets, Trump said the choice of 52 targets represented the number of Americans held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran for more than a year starting in late 1979.
Iran’s top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.’’
For Iran’s army chief, 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” and said in a tweet that he is “like ISIS, like Hitler, like Genghis (Khan)! They all hate cultures”.
US-Iran tensions escalated in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark accord that gave Tehran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
A year on, Iran began hitting back by reducing its nuclear commitments with a series of steps every 60 days, the most recent deadline passing on Saturday. — AFP
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