AFP, TEHRANA tide of mourners flooded the Iranian city of Ahvaz yesterday, weeping and beating their chests in homage to top general Qasem Soleimani who was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad. They chanted “Death to America” as they packed the streets and filled a long bridge spanning a river in the southwestern city, where Soleimani’s remains arrived from Iraq before dawn. Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME” and a red line in international law. For Iran’s army chief, the threat was an attempt to distract the world from Soleimani’s “unjustifiable” assassination. “I doubt they have the courage to initiate” a conflict, Iranian Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said.
