Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pays respect to Soleimani’s family

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday visited the house of Qassem Soleimani to pay his respects to the family of the prominent Iranian general killed by US airstrike in Iraq.

Speaking to Soleimani's wife, Rouhani said the US had made a "big mistake", which he said would be revealed to them not only today but in the years to come.

He called killing of Soleimani the biggest crime in the history of the US crimes, comparing it to a CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953 or shooting down of an Iranian passenger flight in 1988 that killed all passengers onboard. Soleimani is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

The US killed Iran's top general and the architect of Tehran's proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport early on Friday, an attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region.