At least 50 killed in stampede as thousands attend Qassem Soleimani’s funeral in Iran
- Iranian officials say at least 50 are dead and over 200 injured in a stampede in Kerman during the slain general’s funeral procession
- The leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened to ‘set ablaze’ places supported by the US, sparking cries from the crowd
The panic broke out at the burial in Soleimani’s hometown of Kerman in southeast Iran, where Tuesday was declared a public holiday in a move aimed at encouraging as many people as possible to pay their respects to the general.
Earlier media reports said hundreds of thousands of people were attending the burial procession with nearly all television stations in the country showing masses of people moving from the city centre to the martyrs’ graveyard where Soleimani is to be buried.
The burial had to be postponed for a while as there was no way to get Soleimani’s corpse to the cemetery through the masses of people in the streets. It has since started.
Authorities had earlier asked people to clear the way to the graveyard so that the burial could take place.
Soleimani’s death has sparked calls across Iran for revenge against America for a slaying that’s drastically raised tensions across the Middle East. The US government warned ships of an unspecified threat from Iran across all the Mideast’s waterways, crucial routes for global energy supplies.
Early on Tuesday, the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened to “set ablaze” places supported by the United States, sparking cries from the crowd of supporters of “Death to Israel!”
Hossein Salami made the pledge before a crowd of thousands gathered in a central square in Kerman before a casket carrying Soleimani’s remains.
His slaying already has pushed Tehran to abandon the remaining limits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as his successor and others vow to take revenge. In Baghdad, the parliament has called for the expulsion of all American troops from Iraqi soil, something analysts fear could allow Islamic State militants to mount a comeback.
Speaking in Kerman, Salami praised Soleimani’s exploits, describing him as essential to backing Palestinian groups, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria. As a martyr, Soleimani represented an even greater threat to Iran’s enemies, Salami said.
“We will take revenge. We will set ablaze where they like,” Salami said, drawing the cries of “Death to Israel!”
Iran mourns slain general as it plots ‘severe revenge’ against US
According to a report on Tuesday by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Iran has worked up 13 sets of plans for revenge for Soleimani’s killing. The report quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying that even the weakest among them would be a “historic nightmare” for the US He declined to give any details.
“If the US troops do not leave our region voluntarily and upright, we will do something to carry their bodies horizontally out,” Shamkhani said.
Oil tankers were targeted in mine attacks last year the US blamed on Iran. Tehran denied being responsible though it did seize oil tankers around the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil travels.
The US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet earlier said it could respond to any threat. “Afloat or ashore, we remain vigilant to assess, mitigate and defeat threats to our forward-deployed forces and our interests,” 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Joshua Frey said.
Iran’s options for revenge on Trump aren’t limited to its military
Iran’s parliament, meanwhile, has passed an urgent bill declaring the US military’s command at the Pentagon and those acting on its behalf in Soleimani’s killing as “terrorists”, subject to Iranian sanctions. The measure appears to be an attempt to mirror a decision by President Donald Trump in April to declare the Revolutionary Guard a “terrorist organisation”.
The US defence Department used the Guard’s designation as a terror organisation in the US to support the strike that killed Soleimani. The decision by Iran’s parliament, done by a special procedure to speed the bill to law, comes as officials across the country threaten to retaliate for Soleimani’s killing. The vote also saw lawmakers approve funding for the Quds Force with an additional 200 million euros, or about $224 million.
“This is because they fear someone will go there and tell the truth to the American people,” Zarif said. “But they are mistaken. The world is not limited to New York. You can speak with American people from Tehran too and we will do that.” The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Solemani will be buried between the graves of Enayatollah Talebizadeh and Mohammad Hossein Yousef Elahi, two former Guard comrades. The two died in Operation Dawn 8 in Iran’s 1980s war with Iraq in which Soleimani also took part, a 1986 amphibious assault that cut Iraq off from the Persian Gulf and led to the end of the bloody war that killed a million people.
