Funeral held for Iranian military advisors killed in Israeli strike on Damascus mission

Thousands of people have taken part in the funeral processions for Iranian military advisors, who lost their lives in an Israeli missile strike against the consular section of Iran’s Embassy in the Syrian capital city of Damascus.

The participants carried the victim’s coffins, draped with the national Iranian flag, during a ceremony at the holy shrine of Hazrat Ruqayyah (SA) in Damascus on Tuesday night.

The mourners asserted they will tread the path of the fallen Iranian military figures until the collapse of global arrogance as well as Zionism, as they marked Laylat al-Qadr or the Night of Destiny, the occasion when the Holy Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet of Islam some 14 centuries ago. 

They pledged that Israeli actions will not go unpunished.

The participants also vowed that the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain, as it would further encourage Muslims to vigorously fight for the full liberation of the occupied Old City of al-Quds and performance of mass prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The mourners in the ceremony also emphasized that the Zionist enemy commits its crimes out of desperation, because it has bogged itself down in Gaza quagmire and is looking for a way out of the predicament.

On Monday, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located next to the embassy building in Damascus’s Mezzeh district.

The attack killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven martyrs of the terrorist attack.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran will “punish” Israel and make the evil regime “regret” its crime of assassinating the country's military advisors in Syria.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi has also said Israel had resorted to indiscriminate assassinations after back-to-back failures in the face of the resistance, warning that the regime’s latest crime against Iranian military advisers in Syria “will not go unanswered.”

Global condemnation pours in over terrorist Israeli attack on Iranian consulate

Global condemnation of Israel’s attack on Iran

Meanwhile, spokesman of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif said in a news briefing on Wednesday that a funeral procession will be held in the Iranian capital city of Tehran on Friday to pay tribute to the victims of the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria.

Sharif vehemently denounced the fatal strike, stating that “Zionists’ insane behavior is all out of desperation, and has nothing whatsoever with [military] prowess.”

“The failure of the [Israeli] to attain any of its [declared] objectives over the past six months shows that the status quo will not revert to what it used to be prior to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” he said.

The IRGC spokesman noted that thousands of people have taken to streets in London in the past few days to express solidarity with oppressed Palestinians, and demand that British authorities reconsider support for the occupying Tel Aviv regime.

Similar rallies have been staged in New York and elsewhere in the world, Sharif said, emphasizing that this year’s Quds Day will be truly an international event thanks to the endurance, steadfastness, courage and resourcefulness of resistance forces, especially fighters from the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements.

“Their (Israeli) analysts have acknowledged that Gaza cannot be wiped out. Strikes on hospitals have hit the headlines, and they take unlawful and non-diplomatic measures. The crazy behavior of Zionists does not derive from power, but is all out of desperation,” the IRGC spokesman said. 

He finally wished for the final victory of Palestinians, and more humiliation of Zionists.

The body of Brigadier General Zahedi will be transferred to the central city of Isfahan with a military reception after the procession in Tehran.

The ceremony falls on the occasion of International Quds Day. Millions of people are expected to take to the streets to show solidarity with the Palestinians and condemn Israeli atrocities.

Demonstrations are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) in Tehran, and people will march from Imam Hossein Square towards Tehran University's sprayer ground. 

Every year on the last Friday of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, worldwide rallies are held to support the Palestinian people’s resistance against Israel and the struggle to liberate their territories which have been occupied since 1967.

The annual event is seen as an opportunity for freedom-seeking people across the world, regardless of faith, to voice their support for the Palestinian cause and vent their anger at Israel.

International Quds Day is among the legacies of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, who is revered as a spiritual leader by Muslims across the world. Back in 1979, shortly after leading the Islamic Revolution which toppled the US-backed Shah of Iran, Imam Khomeini named the last Friday of Ramadan the Quds Day.

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