Alwaght- Iranians have gathered in the southeastern city of Kerman to pay homage to their hero General Qassem Soleimani, a world-renown anti-terror commander who was assassinated by the US in Iraq three years ago.
People held rallies and memorial ceremonies in General Soleimani’s hometown on Tuesday to mark the third anniversary of the US assassination.
General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.
The strike near Baghdad International Airport was authorized by then- US president Donald Trump. Days after his martyrdom, the anti-terror icon’s body was transferred to Iran and was laid to rest in his hometown Kerman.
The two noted anti-terror commanders were tremendously respected and admired across the region for their instrumental role in fighting and decimating the ISIS Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
In a Monday statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the assassination of the country’s top anti-terror commander is a “glaring example of an organized terrorist act.”
“Indubitable as it is, the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, designed and executed by the United States, constitutes yet another glaring example of an ‘organized terrorist act’,” the statement said.
