Project Location | Middle East, Iran, Tehran
Production Date | 2020-01-06
Tehran’s streets were packed with black-clad mourners Monday as a sea of people turned out to pay their respects to Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force who was assassinated by a US drone strike in Baghdad last week.
The crowds held up portraits, posters and newspaper photos of Soleimani, whose image has appeared on the hundreds of large billboards all across Tehran since his death Friday. Iran has vowed “severe revenge” for the death of Soleimani and on Sunday pulled back from the 2015 nuclear accord. Soleimani, 62, was tasked with protecting and boosting Iran’s influence in the Middle East. in Iran, Soleimani was hailed as a national hero and widely considered the second most powerful man in the country behind Supreme Leader Khamenei. But not all Iranians are as distressed about the general’s death as the mourners who lined Tehran’s streets.
