Top commander laid to rest in Isfahan; IRGC warns of ‘painful’ response to any Israeli aggression

Tens of thousands of people have paid tribute to Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan in a mass funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Isfahan.

Nilforoushan was a former senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) who was assassinated in a recent Israeli aggression on Lebanon.

The ceremony on Thursday saw black-clad mourners, in their thousands, carrying Nilforoushan's coffin, draped with the national Iranian flag, through the main streets and squares in the central Iranian city.

The large crowd attended the funeral service with the flags of Iran, Palestine and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah in their hands as they chanted the slogans of “Death to Israel,” and “Death to America,” in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Lebanon and in support of the resistance front.

The top commander was laid to rest in Isfahan’s Golestan Shohada cemetery.

General Nilforoushan was martyred alongside Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a heavy Israeli attack that targeted a number of residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on September 27.

The body of the Iranian commander was taken from Beirut to the holy Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf and his funeral prayers were led by a representative of Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

His remains were transferred to Tehran on Tuesday and to Mashhad on Wednesday, receiving somber homage from mourners as well as Iranian military and government officials in both cities.

The IRGC announced the discovery of Nilforoushan’s body in a statement on Friday, describing him as one of the Islamic Republic’s “senior advisors” as well as a “stalwart and intellectual” serviceman, who had been martyred as a result of “the ruthless and bloodthirsty Zionist regime’s atrocity.”

Who was Abbas Nilforushan, senior IRGC commander martyred with Nasrallah in Beirut?

General Abbas Nilforushan, the Deputy Commander for Operations of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), was martyred in an Israeli airstrike on Friday in Beirut.

On October 1, Iran responded to the Israeli assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, the Hezbollah leader, and Nilforoushan by launching as many as 200 ballistic missiles toward the occupying regime’s military and intelligence bases all over the occupied Palestinian territories.

Dubbed Operation True Promise II, the retaliatory strike dealt a severe blow to the illegal regime all the more ruinous than its prequel in April, with Tel Aviv having so far declined to reveal the extent of loss it suffered despite vowing to respond on several occasions.

The latest retaliation inflicted significant damage on the targets including the headquarters of the regime’s Mossad spy agency, the regime’s Nevatim airbase that houses its F-35 warplanes, and the Hatzerim base that was used to enable Nasrallah’s assassination.

IRGC warns Israel of ‘painful’ response

Speaking at Nilforoushan’s funeral on Thursday, IRGC’s chief commander Major General Hossein Salami warned Israel of a “painful” response if the regime carried out any further aggression against the Islamic Republic.

The Israeli regime mistakenly thought that assassinating Haniyeh, Nasrallah and Nilforoushan would cause problems for the Axis of Resistance, Salami said. Still, Operation True Promise 2 and the penetration of Iranian missiles through Israel's Iron Dome disrupted their equations.

“The enemy should be aware that any attack on Iran will be met with a painful response,” the IRGC chief said. “Operation True Promise 2 was not our defensive power in its entirety but merely a warning.”

The Israeli regime, he said, will receive a response for committing crimes against Muslim nations. “We clearly declare that we know the weaknesses of the enemy and that we are capable of exposing its vulnerabilities.”

The IRGC chief also dismissed the idea that the resistance front would be stopped by the martyrdom of its leaders and commanders.

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