An Iranian mourns during the funeral of Razi Moussavi on December 28, 2023. (Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP)
Tehran: Thousands massed Thursday in the Iranian capital for the funeral of senior Revolutionary Guards commander Razi Moussavi, three days after he was killed in what Tehran says was an Israeli strike.
The crowd in Tehran's central Imam Hossein square chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".
Many waved yellow flags imprinted with the message "I am your opponent" -- a reference to Israel -- in both Persian and Hebrew.
Some of the mourners in Tehran carried pictures of Moussavi together with the revered Qasem Soleimani, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's foreign operations arm who was killed in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.
Iranian state media says an Israeli missile strike on Monday near the Syrian capital Damascus killed Moussavi, a Quds Force general and the most senior Guards commander killed since Soleimani.
Syria on Thursday said Moussavi's "martyrdom" on its territory was part of Israel's "aggressive policies", official news agency SANA reported.
In letters sent by the Syrian foreign ministry, Damascus called on the United Nations to act against Israeli actions which might "ignite the region", SANA said.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier on Thursday met with Moussavi's family and led a prayer over the slain general's body before it was taken to the central square.
The head of the Guards, Hossein Salami, hailed Moussavi, while IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif warned on Wednesday that "our response to Moussavi's assassination will be a combination of direct action as well as (from) others led by the Axis of Resistance".
