Huge crowds in Iran for commander's funeral, daughter warns US of 'dark day'

Tens of thousands of Iranians thronged the streets of Tehran on Jan. 6 for the funeral of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a U.S. airstrike last week and his daughter said his death would bring a "dark day" for the United States.

"Crazy Trump, don't think that everything is over with my father's martyrdom," Zeinab Soleimani said in her address broadcast on state television after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered Jan.3's strike that killed the top Iranian general.

Iran has promised to avenge the killing of Soleimani, the architect of Iran's drive to extend its influence across the region and a national hero among many Iranians, even many of those who did not consider themselves devoted supporters of the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers.

The scale of the crowds in Tehran shown on television mirrored the masses that gathered in 1989 for the funeral of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In response to Iran's warnings, Trump has threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites, including cultural targets, if Tehran attacks Americans or U.S. assets, deepening a crisis that has heightened fears of a major Middle East conflagration.

The coffins of the Iranian general and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also killed in Jan. 3's attack on Baghdad airport, were passed across the heads of mourners massed in central Tehran, many of them chanting "Death to America".

One of the Islamic Republic's major regional goals, namely to drive U.S. forces out of neighbouring Iraq, came a step closer on Jan. 5 when the Iraqi parliament backed a recommendation by the prime minister for all foreign troops to be ordered out.

"Despite the internal and...