Thousands attend funeral of slain IRGC commander
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Thousands in Iraq’s southern Karbala city attended the funeral of the slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Abbas Nilforoushian, who was killed in Beirut last month.
Nilfroushian’s body was flown to Iraq on Monday, three days after it was retrieved from the site of the airstrike in Beirut that resulted in the killing of him alongside Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
His body was carried to the shrine of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, before it was taken to the city of Najaf which is considered to be the center of Shiite political power in Iraq.
Hundreds of members of Iran-backed armed groups in military uniforms, and supporters clad in black attended the funeral while waving flags of Hezbollah, and Lebanon and chanting “Death to Israel, death to America.”
The Israeli attack on Beirut late last month is considered one of the largest blows to Iran and Hezbollah.
Iran responded by firing nearly 200 missiles at Israel on October 1, in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh who was killed in late July.
Israel has said that it will respond to the Iranian attack at "a time and place of its choosing."
Israel's imminent retaliation has put Iran and its backed militia groups in Iraq on alert.
“We are ready if it [the war] expands. Whenever it expands, we are at sufficient and full readiness by God willing. In the end, we will certainly win as the martyr Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said,” Raid al-Haydari, the secretary general of Dir’ al-Wilaya faction of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) told Rudaw.
Nilforoushan's body was returned to Iran's capital of Tehran overnight where a massive funeral was held on Tuesday.
The funeral was also attended by Ismail Qaani, the head of IRGC’s Quds Force, who was speculated to have been the target of an Israeli strike in Beirut earlier this month.
Nilforoushan will be buried in his hometown, Isfahan, on Thursday.