Huge Crowds as Funeral procession holds in Iraq for Iranian Suleimani, PMF officials killed in strike

People are gathering in Baghdad to mourn the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) officials killed in a US airstrike at the airport yesterday.

Slain bodies of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani and others killed in a US drone strike will be taken on a funeral procession starting in Baghdad on Saturday ahead of a public farewell for the slain military leader in Tehran the following day, according to officials in Iran.

Their caskets have been covered with black, and decorated with flowers. Thousands of Iraqis chanting "Death to America" join the funeral procession for Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

The strike killed the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, as well as Iran general Qasem Soleimani.

According to the state TV commentator, a funeral procession will begin at 10 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) at the Al-Kaduhm shrine in Baghdad, with dignitaries and government officials in attendance.

There's still over an hour to go, but the streets are already filled with people dressed in black. Yesterday after the strike, Iraqi crowds also prayed in mosques, some holding posters of the officials' faces.

Soleimani's body will arrive in Iran for burial later today, Iran state media reported. Thousands of mourners are expected to turn out for the funeral processions in Baghdad on Saturday, further raising tensions in a city where US installations have already come under attack this week.

The US state department has told its citizens to leave the city.

Iran’s envoy to Baghdad, Iraj Masjedi, told Iranian state media that Iraq’s caretaker prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi had insisted on holding a public funeral for Suleimani in Baghdad along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi militia leader killed in the same operation.

Funeral processions would also be held on Saturday in the holy Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf, Iranian officials said, before Suleimani’s remains were returned to Iran on Sunday morning.

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei would lead a prayer ceremony for Suleimani in Tehran and his body would be buried in his hometown of Kerman, Iranian outlets reported.

Qasem Suleimani, 62, oversaw the external operations of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and was the architect of an expansion of Iranian influence across the Middle East in the past decades.

A Pentagon statement accused Suleimani’s Quds force of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US soldiers and the wounding of thousands more.

UN secretary general, António Guterres, said. “The world cannot afford another war in the Gulf.” “This is a moment in which leaders must exercise maximum restraint.”

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