No fewer than 32 mourners have been killed from a stampede during the funeral ceremony for a slain Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani, in the southeastern city of Kerman killed 32 people and injured 48 on Tuesday.
As tens of thousands of mourners poured on to the streets of Kerman for the funeral of Soleimani, who was killed in a United States drone strike in Iraq on Friday, Hossein Salami, the leader of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards threatened to “set ablaze” places America loves.
He made the pledge before a crowd of thousands gathered in a central square in Kerman, the hometown of the slain general Qassem Soleimani, as they prepared to bury him.
Overcrowding in the square left at least 32 dead and more than 190 injured, forcing authorities to postpone the official ceremony. A procession in Tehran on Monday drew over one million people.
“We will take revenge. We will set ablaze a place they like, and they well know where it is,” Salami said, drawing the cries of “Death to Israel!”
His body had been taken to Iraqi and Iranian cities before arriving in Kerman for burial.
The killing of Soleimani, who built up Tehran’s network of proxy forces across the Middle East, has prompted mourning in Iran.
