SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A statue erected to honor slain Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani has been torched by unknown assailants hours after it was unveiled, Iranian media reported Thursday.
Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed on January 3, 2020 in Iraq in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport along with his Iraqi lieutenant and others.
On Wednesday morning, a statue to honor him was unveiled in the southwestern Iranian city of Shahrekord, according to AFP.
But in the evening it was set on fire, ISNA news agency said, calling it a “shameful act by unknown individuals”, AFP reported.
“This treacherous crime was carried out in darkness, just like the other crime committed at night at Baghdad airport,” when Soleimani was killed, senior Muslim cleric Mohammad Ali Nekounam said in a statement carried by ISNA.
Iranian authorities have unveiled several sculptures dedicated to Soleimani since his assassination two years ago, and portraits of the revered commander dot the landscape across Iran.
