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Iran top general to be laid to rest Tuesday in hometown
TEHRAN, Jan 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani
will be laid to rest Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman as part of three days
of ceremonies across the country, the Revolutionary Guards said.
The US military killed Soleimani on Friday in an air strike outside
Baghdad international airport that shocked the Islamic republic and sparked
fears of a new war in the Middle East.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the commander of its Quds
Force foreign operations arm had been killed on Friday by US forces in an air
strike on Baghdad international airport.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei swiftly promised “severe
revenge” and declared three days of mourning.
Soleimani’s body was expected to arrive in Tehran on Saturday night before
being taken to the Shiite holy city of Mashhad the next day for a ceremony to
be held next to Imam Reza’s shrine, a statement posted on the Guards website
late Friday said.
“A ceremony will next be held in Tehran on Monday morning, and then the
pure body of this soldier of the people and the nation will be buried in
Kerman on Tuesday morning,” it added.
A group of students also announced they would hold a vigil for Soleimani
at Tehran University on Saturday before going to Tehran’s Mehrabad airport
for the arrival of his remains.
The general, who died aged 62, was one of Iran’s most popular public
figures.
After serving in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Soleimani quickly rose through
the ranks of the Guards to become commander of the Quds Force.
In recent years he became an unlikely celebrity in Iran and had a huge
following on Instagram.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tehran and other cities
across Iran on Friday to protest the US attack.
Khamenei and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani paid separate visits to
Soleimani’s family at their home on Friday to offer them their condolences
over his death.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1451 hrs