Iran mourns Suleimani and vows 'dark day' of vengeance against the US
Tensions rise as thousands take to streets of Tehran for funeral of general killed in drone strike.
Tens of thousands of Iranians have filled the streets of Tehran for the funeral of Gen Qassem Suleimani, where his daughter said his death would bring a “dark day” for the US.
US-Iran tensions are escalating after Suleimani was killed in Iraq on Friday in a US drone strike ordered by Donald Trump without congressional authorisation.
“Crazy Trump, don’t think that everything is over with my father’s martyrdom,” Zeinab Soleimani said in her address broadcast on Iranian state television.
Iran has promised to avenge the killing of Suleimani, 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 numbers who gathered in 1989 for the funeral of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In response to Iran’s warnings, Trump has threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites, including cultural targets, if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets, deepening a crisis that has heightened fears of a major Middle East conflagration.
The coffins of the Iranian general and the 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 the Iraqi caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned in November amid anti-government protests.
