Dozens killed in deadly stampede in Iran during Qasim Soleimani burial

At least 56 people were killed, and over 200 others injured in the incident, medical sources in Iran confirmed.

Kurdistan 24 2020/01/07 10:07

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Dozens of people have been confirmed dead in a stampede in Iran during a burial ceremony on Tuesday for killed Iranian general Qasim Soleimani.

Iranian state television confirmed the deaths in the deadly stampede.

According to the head of Iran’s emergency medical services, at least 56 people were killed, and over 200 others injured in the incident.

Droves of people attended a ceremony on Tuesday as the body of Soleimani arrived for burial in his hometown of Kerman in southeast Iran.

On Monday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led a prayer for the killed general, who was murdered in a US attack last week.

The procession took place at Tehran University, where Khamenei wept as he read a prayer for the deceased Soleimani.

WATCH: Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sobs during funeral prayer for Qasim Soleimani

Other senior officials in the Iranian government, including President Hassan Rouhani, as well as military commanders, attended the ceremony.

A US drone strike last week on a convoy near the Baghdad airport killed Soleimani, long-time head of the Quds Force, the paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the Iranian-backed Shia militia, Kata’ib Hizbollah, which was responsible for killing a US contractor on Dec. 27 in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base near Kirkuk.

Iran has vowed to respond to the attack and declared on Sunday that it would no longer abide by a 2015 nuclear accord it signed with world powers.