Fatal stampede at Iran hero’s funeral
– A stampede broke out yesterday at the funeral of a top Iranian general killed in a US drone strike, leaving more than 30 people dead as huge crowds of mourners packed his hometown.
The crush in the southeastern city of Kerman came as Iran prepared to bury Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, a hugely popular figure in the Islamic republic.
“Unfortunately due to extraordinary overcrowding more than 30 people have lost their lives and dozens of others have been injured,” state television reported.
Soleimani, the head of the Guards’ Quds Force foreign operations arm, was assassinated on Friday in a US strike near Baghdad international airport – an operation that shocked Iran.
“The enemy killed him unjustly,” the Revolutionary Guards’ top commander, Major-General Hossein Salami said, adding the process of “expelling the US from the region has begun”.
“Our will is firm. We also tell our enemies that we will take revenge, and that if they (strike again) we will set fire to what they love,” he told the sea of black-clad mourners.
“They themselves know well what places I am talking about.”
Schoolgirls joined chants of “Death to Trump” from the crowd.
Yesterday’s funeral comes after days of processions through the streets of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran, the capital Tehran, the holy city of Qom and far northwestern city of Mashhad.
The assassination of Soleimani set off an escalating war of words between Iran and the US.
In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani on Monday warned Trump to “never threaten” Iran, after the US leader issued a US strike list of 52 targets in the Islamic republic.
Yesterday, Iranian lawmakers voted to designate all US forces around the world “terrorists” over Soleimani’s killing.
Parliament also agreed to bolster the coffers of the Quds Force, which Soleimani led, by
$244 million (R3.4 billion).
Friday’s assassination of the 62-year-old Soleimani heightened international concern about a new war in the volatile Middle East.
Iraq’s parliament has demanded the government expel the 5 200 American troops stationed in the country in response to the drone attack, which also killed top Iraqi military figure Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Baghdad requested in a letter to the UN that the Security Council condemn the US strike so that “the law of the jungle” is not allowed to prevail.
The operation represented “a dangerous escalation that could lead to a devastating war in Iraq, the region and the world”, wrote Iraq’s UN ambassador Mohammed Hussein Bahr-Aluloom.
On Sunday, the US mistakenly notified Iraq of an imminent troop pullout in a letter that sparked confusion in Washington.
“We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure,” said the letter, whose authenticity was confirmed by both Iraqi and US defence officials.
In the letter, US Brigadier-General William Seely said the US-led coalition would “be repositioning forces”.
But Pentagon Joint Chiefs chair Mark Milley said the letter was a mere “draft” that was sent by mistake.
Germany said yesterday it was withdrawing some of its troops deployed as the anti-IS coalition in Iraq.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that Iran must avoid “further violence and provocations”.
The European Union, whose foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on the crisis on Friday, said it was in both Iran and Iraq’s interests to “take the path of sobriety and not the path of escalation”.
We also tell our enemies that we will take revenge