The bodies of Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds forces, and the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who was also killed in the strike, were processed through Iraq and into Iran on Saturday and Sunday. Memorial services have been held in cities across Iran and Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region’s cities Erbil and Sulaimani.
"We are here for the mourning ceremony of a great commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was a friend of the people of Iraq and a friend of the Kurds in different stages," Fazil Mirani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) politburo, told Rudaw at the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Erbil.
He was part of a KDP delegation paying their respects.
"[Soleimani] had a big role in the Iran-Iraq war and he had a very positive role assisting Iraq and Kurdistan in the war against Daesh [Islamic State, ISIS]," Mirani said. Iran was the first country to come to the aid of Baghdad and Erbil when ISIS swept across large swathes of the country in 2014.
"We send our condolences to his family through the consulate in the name of President Barzani, the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] presidency, the KRG, and the KDP Politburo, and the KDP secretariat. We hope that great men in their life serve peace and we hope that losing them will serve the same purpose," added Mirani.
Members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) visited the Iranian consulate in Sulaimani to pay their respects.
"We shared in our grief with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Adnan Mufti, member of the PUK Supreme Political Council, told reporters.
Qubad Talabani, PUK member and deputy prime minister, also paid his respects in Sulaimani.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) described the killing of Soleimani and Muhandis as a "dangerous escalation" in tensions between the US and Iran. Iran and their allied militias in Iraq have vowed to avenge the deaths of their commanders. The US has sent more troops to the country and two bases where they are hosted in Iraq came under fire Saturday evening.
"The recent events of Baghdad and possible foreseeable implications of the killing of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and some of their friends by American forces has worried us and we see it as a dangerous escalation," read a statement from the KIU.
Tehran’s envoy to Erbil said earlier on Sunday that the stability of the Middle East is contingent upon the security of Iran while vowing that his country will take its revenge on the United States.
“The peace of Iraq, the regional countries, and the surrounding countries is connected to the peace and stability of the Islamic Republic,” Consul General Nasrollah Rashnoudi told Rudaw’s Ranja Jamal.
