- A eulogist at the funeral procession of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani has called for President Donald Trump to be assassinated in revenge - and for the person who carries it out to be rewarded with $80 million.
- "Anyone who brings the yellow haired lunatic to us will get 80 million dollars from the Iranian people," said the eulogist, in video footage posted on Twitter.
- More than a million people reportedly took to the streets to pay their respects to Soleimani in the holy city of Mashhad, as the funeral procession made its way to Tehran.
- Iranian political and military leaders have pledged to revenge Soleimani's death, but Trump has said that if Iran acts the US will target Iranian cultural sites.
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A eulogist at the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani called for an $80 million reward to be made available to anyone who assassinates President Donald Trump in a revenge attack for the military commander's death.
The unnamed eulogist made the comments as thousands poured onto the streets in the northeastern city of Mashhad to pay their respects to Soleimani. The leader of the al Quds paramillitary force was assassinated in a US drone strike in Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday.
"We will give a prize of 80 million dollars to whoever brings the head of the person who ordered the killing and terrorism of our big revolutionary hero [Soleimani]," the cleric says in Farsi, Iran's main language.
"Anyone who brings the yellow haired lunatic to us will get $80 million from the Iranian people," said the eulogist, in video footage posted on Twitter by NBC News correspondent Ali Arouzi.
There had earlier been erroneous reports circulating on social media that the $80 million figure was officially backed by the Iranian government.
Soleimani's funeral procession has made its way through many of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, including Mashhad, and his remains will arrive in his hometown, Kerman, for his burial on Tuesday.
Much of the procession was broadcast live on Iranian state TV.
The Financial Times reported that up to a million people in Mashhad attended the funeral procession on Sunday, where many held placards calling for revenge against the US and its regional allies.
"We shall see the uprooting of the US in the region," said one speaker to the crowd, according to the report. "You crazy, yellow-haired man [Trump]! Listen carefully! 'Down with the US' . . . You Israelis! We will send you death . . . every single drop of our tears will turn into a missile into your land."
Iran's leaders have pledged they will strike back at the US for the assassination, with Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, in a CNN interview broadcast Sunday saying Iran would hit US military targets in revenge.
Trump though said that any Iranian retaliation would result in the US targetting Iranian cultural sites, a claim some Trump administration officials distanced themselves from but which the president doubled down on Sunday.
At Solemani's funeral procession in Mashad one of the organisers called on all Iranian to donate $1 each in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trumps head. pic.twitter.com/Qb7AAfAiww
- Ali Arouzi (@aliarouzi) January 5, 2020