‘Last pictures’ of Soleimani: Iranian media release photos of killed general hugging and praying with Hezbollah leader in Beirut just days before fatal US drone strike in Iraq
- The photographs see Soleimani meeting Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut
- Iranian media released images of Soleimani praying behind Nasrallah ‘last week’
- The chief of Hezbollah said the US army will ‘pay the price’ for killing Soleimani
- He was taken out in a drone strike near by Baghdad International Airport Friday
These are the last known photographs taken of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani before he was blown up in a US drone strike on Friday.
The pictures show the head of the elite Quds Force meeting Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Iranian media released the images, which are understood to have been taken last week, showing the friendship between the two as Soleimani prayed behind Nasrallah.
The pictures show the head of the elite Quds Force (right) meeting Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah (left) in Beirut
Iranian media released the images, which are understood to have been taken last week, showing the friendship between the two as Soleimani (right) prayed behind Nasrallah (left)
The chief of Hezbollah (left) today said the US army will ‘pay the price’ for killing Soleimani (right) and a senior Iraqi commander in the drone strike near by Baghdad International Airport
Nasrallah is pictured talking to Soleimani – believed to be in Beirut – last week, just days before the latter was killed
The chief of Hezbollah today said the US army will ‘pay the price’ for killing Soleimani and a senior Iraqi commander in the drone strike near by Baghdad International Airport.
‘The American army killed them and it will pay the price,’ the head of the Lebanese Shiite group warned in a televised speech.
‘The only just punishment is (to target) American military presence in the region: US military bases, US warships, each and every officer and soldier in the region,’ Nasrallah said.
The chief of Hezbollah today said the US army will ‘pay the price’ for killing Soleimani and a senior Iraqi commander in the drone strike near by Baghdad International Airport. Pictured: Supporters of Hezbollah
Lebanon’s Hezbollah supporters attend a funeral ceremony rally to mourn Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force
But he added American civilians such as ‘businessmen, engineers, journalists and doctors’ should be spared.
‘When the coffins of American soldiers and officers… start to return to the United States, (US President Donald) Trump and his administration will realise they have lost the region,’ he said.
Soleimani and top Iraqi military figure Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in a US drone strike Friday near Baghdad airport, sparking fury in Iran and Iraq.
Nasrallah’s speech was beamed to black-clad supporters gathered in southern Beirut, who waved Hezbollah’s yellow flag or held up portraits of Soleimani and Muhandis.
Nasrallah also called on Iraq to free itself of the American ‘occupation’.
A supporter of Hezbollah carries a placard during a mass rally to pay tribute to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Lieutenant general and commander of the Quds Force Soleimani in a southern suburb of Beirut
‘Our demand, our hope from our brothers in the Iraqi parliament is… to adopt a law that demands American forces withdraw from Iraq,’ he said.
Iraq’s parliament urged the government on Sunday to end the presence of US-led coalition forces in the country, outraged by the American strike.
Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State jihadist group.
They are deployed as part of the broader international coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help fight IS.
Hezbollah is the only side not to have disarmed after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
The United States has designated it a ‘terrorist’ group and several of its figures are under sanctions, but the party is also a key player in Lebanese politics.