TEHRAN - More than 50 people have died and 213 others injured in a stampede as huge crowds turned out for the funeral procession of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in his hometown of Kerman on Tuesday.

ISNA quoted head of the Medical Emergency Organization, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, as saying that the injured people were transferred to hospitals.

Soleimani was the IRGC Quds Force commander who was martyred in a U.S. terrorist assault in Baghdad on January 3.

His remains arrived at the Kerman airport, after massive funeral processions were held in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf, as well as the Iranian cities of Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tehran and Qom.

Soleimani was a popular figurehead in helping squelch an ominous rise of Daesh.

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