TEHRAN -- The funeral of an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) general martyred alongside Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of people in Iraq and Iran for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on the occupying regime of Israel.
The head of the IRGC’s Quds Force Gen. Esmail Qa’ani attended the procession in a black jacket wiping away tears early Tuesday morning at the body repatriation of Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
Mourners carried the martyr’s coffin, draped with the national Iranian flag, on their shoulders on Tehran’s iconic Imam Hussein Square.
Gen. Nilforoushan was martyred in an Israeli bombing of residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on September 27.
His remains were taken from Beirut to the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, where a large crowd attended his funeral, including representatives of Iraqi political groups, with a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani leading prayers over his body.
Another funeral procession was held in Najaf that houses the holy shrine of Imam Ali (AS), the first Shia Imam.
On Tuesday, Gen. Nilforoushan’s body was transferred to Tehran where his casket was paraded through the packed streets of Tehran after a funeral ceremony at Imam Hussein Square in the city center.
Tens of thousands attended the funeral procession, many of them carrying yellow Hezbollah banners and Iranian and Palestinian flags and chanting “Death to Israel.”
His remains were taken to another farewell ceremony in Tehran later in the day before leaving for another procession in Qom.