dpa
Tehran
Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in a rocket attack in Damascus, was buried on Saturday in his birthplace of Isfahan in central Iran.
According to the ISNA news agency, thousands of people attended the state-organized funeral of the high-ranking officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The 63-year-old Zahedi, his deputy and five other IRGC officers were killed in an airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday.
Shortly afterwards, Iran’s supreme leader blamed arch-enemy Israel for the attack and threatened retaliatory measures.
The participants at Zahedi’s funeral also chanted anti-Israeli slogans and demanded immediate revenge against Israel.
Mohammed Bagheri, Iran’s highest-ranking general, said after the funeral ceremony: “The assassination of General Zahedi and his comrades was an act of suicide by Israel and will accelerate the collapse of this regime.” Bagheri said that the attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus would not help Israel in the Gaza war, and he said that Israel’s ally, the United States, was also to blame.
“The US bears the main responsibility for the Damascus attack and must therefore be held accountable,” said Bagheri, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
He declined to say whether US facilities might also now be targetted in Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
The Revolutionary Guards were founded after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
In recent years, they have not only been militarily upgraded, but have also expanded their political and economic influence throughout the country.
Moreover, they support non-state Islamist militant groups in the region - officially only as military advisors, but there have also been reports of financial and logistical support.
