Anti-US protest in Delhi against Iranian General Qasem Suleimani's killing
NEW DELHI: A large group of people held a protest near the United States embassy in New Delhi on Tuesday over the killing of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad last week.
The demonstrators gathered at the Teen Murti Lane in the national capital, carrying the posters of Suleimani and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and raised slogans of 'Down with America and Israel'.
Soleimani, who was Iran's most powerful military commander, was killed on Friday in a US airstrike carried out near the Baghdad international airport.
His assassination has triggered a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East and marked the most significant confrontation between the US and Iran in recent years.
"General Suleimani always helped in enhancing the relations between India and Iran. He backed New Delhi on a number of significant issues, be it the negotiations on the Chabahar port or the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)," said a protester.
Soleimani's killing had earlier triggered protests in Shia dominated Kargil in Ladakh UT, and Budgam in central Kashmir.
The protests at New Delhi have come at a time when tens of thousands of mourners have poured into the streets of the Iranian city of Kerman to attend the funeral of Soleimani.