Iranian media: Supreme leader had wished 'martyrdom' for Soleimani

There has been an outpouring of grief in Iran after their top military commander General Qassem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike, ordered by US President Donald Trump. Iranian media reported the death of Soleimani, who had overseen unconventional warfares in the Middle East to spread Shiite influence, as “martyrdom”.

Tehran Times editor-in-chief Mohammad Ghaderi wrote an article saying “Soleimani was a culture and culture cannot be assassinated”. Calling the US leader “stupid”, Ghaderi said Trump administration assumed that assassination of Soleimani would end the “axis of resistance” but he was not a person but a culture based on resistance. “They martyred a commander...ignoring the fact that the “culture and ideology of resistance” cannot be assassinated,” wrote Ghaderi.

'Revolutionary warrior of Islam'

In another opinion piece for Tehran Times, Syed Zafar Mehdi wrote that Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei had wished martyrdom for his “brave soldier” General Qassem Soleimani. “On the blessed night of Friday, the wish came true and the ‘living martyr’ bade us adieu,” added Mehdi. The columnist called Soleimani a “revolutionary warrior of Islam” and claimed that he “singlehandedly took on the ‘gangsters’ of the world from Washington to Tel Aviv”. After the death of Soleimani, Iranian media called the US military personnel, who carried out the attacks, as “terrorists”.

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The recent attack by Iran-back militia killed several service members including an American contractor, to which the United States retaliated with airstrikes killing 25 fighters of the Kataeb Hezbollah. It led to outrage among pro-Iran voices and protesters entered high-security US embassy in Baghdad and vandalised the building. US President Donald Trump reacted sharply to the incident and threatened Iran that they will pay a “big price”. The threat was followed by drone strike at Baghdad international airport killing Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU).

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In a televised address from Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Trump said that his administration took action against the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force to stop a war and not to start one. In a televised address from Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Trump announced that the US States military killed Soleimani in a “precision strike” at his direction.

“Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,” said the US President.

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