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Ceremonies Begin in Ahvaz for Slain Iranian Quds Force Commander

RFE/RL

   Tens of thousands of mourners have gathered in the southwestern Iranian
   city of Ahvaz to honor Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds
   Force who was killed earlier in the week by a U.S. air strike while
   traveling in a convoy in neighboring Iraq.

   State television broadcast live footage of the Sunday ceremonies
   showing black-clad marchers chanting and beating their chests in homage
   to Soleimani, whose body was returned to Iran just before dawn.

   IRIB posted a video clip of a casket wrapped in an Iranian flag as it
   was unloaded from a plane as a military band played.

   Iran has declared three days of mourning, and Soleimani's body will be
   taken to the holy city of Mashad and to Tehran before his burial in his
   hometown of Kerman on January 7.

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