Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visits family of killed commander Soleimani
Last updated on: 04 January,2020 06:54 pm
Rouhani said that difficult times would be coming for America as a result of killing of Soleimani
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited the family of killed commander Qassem Soleimani on Saturday (January 4).
Rouhani said that difficult times would be coming for America as a result of the killing of Soleimani and that the story of Iran as a nation would have been very different without the him.
Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and others were killed in a U.S. air strike on Friday (January 3).
Friday s attack on Baghdad airport, authorised by U.S. President Donald Trump, signalled a major escalation in a Middle East "shadow war" between Iran and the United States and American allies, mainly Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Soleimani, a 62-year-old general, was Tehran s most prominent military commander and the architect of its spreading influence in the Middle East.
U.S.-Iranian hostilities have intensified in Iraq since last week when pro-Iranian militia attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad following a deadly U.S. air raid on the Kataib Hezbollah militia, founded by Muhandis.
A senior Trump administration official said Soleimani had been planning imminent attacks on U.S. personnel across the Middle East. U.S. Democratic party critics said the order by the Republican president was reckless and that he had raised the risk of more violence in a dangerous region.
An elaborate, PMF-organised procession to mourn Soleimani, Muhandis and the others began in Baghdad s heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday.
It will proceed by car to the Shi ite holy city of Kerbala and end in Najaf, another sacred Shi ite city where Muhandis and the other Iraqis killed will be buried.
Soleimani s body will be transferred to the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan that borders Iraq, then on Sunday (January 5) to the Shi ite holy city of Mashhad in the northeast and from there to the capital Tehran and on to his hometown Kerman in the southeast for burial on Tuesday (January 7), Iranian state media reported.