TEHRAN – Tens of thousands of mourners poured into the streets of Iranian cities on Thursday for the mass funeral of 250 martyrs of the Iraqi war on Iran, a testament to the enduring legacy of the Islamic nation’s sacrifices 35 years later.
A funeral procession carrying the remains of those recently recovered from former battlefields snaked through the capital, Tehran, while other remains were returned to another two dozen provinces. Although Iran and Iraq sporadically exchange remains excavated from borderland territory that witnessed major combat in the 1980s, Thursday marked the largest such ceremony in recent years.
The funeral comes as Iran marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S. assassination of the country’s legendary commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad.
From outside of Tehran University, trucks piled high with flag-draped coffins made their way through the streets. Men and women in black thronged the coffins, many weeping for those who sacrificed their lives in fighting back an invasion by Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein in 1980 and ensuring war which lasted for eight years.
It was the first time in recent years that Iran honored the interment of so many 1980s war martyrs at once. Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh said Iran had planned the mass funeral two years ago but pushed it back because of the coronavirus pandemic. Infections have declined in recent weeks as vaccination accelerates.
Thursday’s ceremony also commemorated the martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, Hazrat Fatima Zahra (SA).
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei praised the martyrs and their family members. President Ebrahim Raisi attended the funeral in Tehran to pay his respect.
“Peace be upon the unknown martyrs; those unknown among the earth’s inhabitants but well-known in the heavens,” the
Leader said in a message read at the procession.
“I send my greetings to the pure souls of these martyrs and to the waiting eyes and hearts of their fathers, mothers and wives, and I pray for the God’s ever-increasing grace and mercy for all of them,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
Most of the martyrs’ remains were recovered from the southwest border area of Shalamcheh, some 640 kilometers from Tehran, one of the main war-ravaged sites of Saddam’s surprise invasion. Many were martyred in Iran’s Karbala 5 Operation in January 1987 as Iranians struggled to win back some 155 square kilometers of the country’s territory.
None of the martyrs’ remains returned Thursday were identified. The tombstones read “anonymous martyr.” Images of Gen. Soleimani covered their coffins. For many Iranian families, the war’s painful legacy drags on in continuous waiting for news of loved ones still “missing.”
American support for Saddam’s forces during the war, as Iraq unleashed thousands of chemical bombs against Iranians helped drag the war and build up a deep-seated resentment that persists today.
Supported by major Western and regional states, Saddam Hussein launched his military invasion, less than two years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
With the army mostly in disarray, Iranians closed ranks under the leadership of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini as they rushed to the warfronts to push back Iraqi forces and liberate occupied territories.
The war ended in 1988 with a ceasefire deal, with the Iraqi dictator failing to achieve any of his goals and Iran not conceding an inch of its territory.