Iranian general to be buried on Tuesday

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says the late Qasem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force, will be buried in Kerman, his hometown, on Tuesday.

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike on Thursday night.

A huge crowd in Iraq’s capital Baghdad is currently taking part in a funeral procession for the Iranian military commander.

According to BBC, the gathering in Baghdad on Saturday marked the beginning of days of mourning for Soleimani.

Iran has already declared three days of mourning for the murdered general. There have been different reactions to his death.

After news of his death broke, some Iraqis celebrated in Baghdad’s streets, accusing him of orchestrating violent crackdowns on peaceful pro-democracy protests there in recent months but in Tehran, capital of Iran, hundreds of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran, the country’s capital, to protest the general’s death.

In a statement posted on IRGC’s website, the force said a ceremony will 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”.

A group of students have announced that 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.

Soleimani is to be taken to the Shiite holy city of Mashhad for a ceremony to be held next to Imam Reza’s shrine.

Soleimani died at 62.