Thousands in Iran attend burial ceremony for killed general Qasim Soleimani

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Droves of people attended a ceremony on Tuesday as the body of killed Iranian general Qasim Soleimani arrived for burial in his hometown of Kerman in southeast Iran.

State-run IRNA news agency published footage that showed tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets of Kerman to mourn Soleimani’s death.

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.

Read More: US strike kills Qasim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

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.