Iraqi mourners chant ‘Death to America’ at funeral of slain Iranian general
Baghdad: Tens of thousands of Iraqis chanting ‘Death to America’ mourned a top Iranian commander and others killed in a US drone attack that sparked fears of proxy war in the Middle East.
The killing of Iran's Major General Qasem Soleimani on Friday was the most dramatic escalation yet in spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States, which pledged to send thousands more troops to the region.
Iraqi political leaders and clerics attended the mass ceremony to honour 62-year-old Soleimani and the other nine victims of the pre-dawn attack on Baghdad international airport.
Iran has vowed revenge for the killing of Soleimani, the chief architect of its military operations across the Middle East. "The response for a military action is a military action," Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi told CNN, calling the strike an "act of war".
"By whom, by when, where? That is for the future to witness."
The strike killed a total of five Iranian Guards and five members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network, whose members have close ties to Tehran. Among the dead was the Hashed's deputy Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was a top adviser and personal friend to Soleimani.
Mass ceremonies started in Baghdad on Saturday for the dead, with Iraq's caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi and top pro-Iran figures in large crowds accompanying the coffins. They were first brought to a revered Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, where thousands of mourners chanted "Death to America!"
Dressed in black, they waved white Hashed flags and massive portraits of Iranian and Iraqi leaders, furiously calling for "revenge".
The remains were then moved to the shrine city of Karbala and would ultimately end up in Najaf, where the Iraqis will be buried. The Guards' remains would be flown to Iran, which has declared three days of mourning and religious rituals.
As head of the Guards' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, Soleimani was a powerful figure domestically and oversaw Iran's wide-ranging interventions in regional power struggles.
He had long been considered a lethal foe by Washington, with US president Donald Trump saying he should have been killed "many years ago".
Tehran has already named Soleimani's deputy, Esmail Qaani, to replace him. His first order of business was made clear Friday when Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised "severe revenge" for Soleimani's death.
Iraqis worry the US strike could unleash a new wave of destabilisation for Iraq, which only two years ago announced it had defeated the Islamic State group.
Amid the tensions, the Pentagon said up to 3,500 additional US troops would be dispatched to Iraq's neighbour Kuwait, to boost some 14,000 reinforcements already deployed to the region last year. About 5,200 US troops are stationed across Iraq to help fight IS.
US citizens were urged to leave Iraq immediately and American staff were evacuated from oil fields in the south.
Iraq's pro-Iran factions have seized on Soleimani's death to push parliament, which convenes Sunday, to revoke the security agreement allowing US forces on Iraqi soil.
While praying over Muhandis's remains in Baghdad, top Hashed official Hadi al-Ameri pledged to avenge him by ousting US troops. "Be reassured that the price of your pure blood will be the departure of American troops from Iraq, forever," he said.
