Thousands of mourners rushed into Tehran’s streets on Tuesday to pay their respects to a senior Revolutionary Guard colonel killed earlier this week by two gunmen on a motorcycle, hitting the air with their fists and yelling “Death to Israel.”

Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei’s death on Sunday bore the markings of previous lethal gun strikes in Iran alleged on Israel, including those targeting the country’s nuclear scientists.

No one has claimed responsibility for the incident. Iranian officials have blamed Khodaei’s death on “global arrogance,” which is code for the United States and Israel.

Mourners yelled anti-US and anti-Israel slogans as the burial procession snaked through Tehran’s biggest cemetery. A big sign lauded Khodaei as a martyr with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the senior Iranian officer killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020, and displayed shredded Israeli, American, and British flags.

“Iran is a victim of terrorism,” the banner declared, overlaid with the logos of the Mossad and Central Intelligence Agency.

The funeral was attended by Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami and Gen. Esmail Ghaani, commander of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force.

On Monday night, Ghaani also expressed her condolences at Khodaei’s home. The visit by Iran’s nuclear negotiator underscored the government’s shock. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has pledged retaliation. Already, a street in Tehran has been named after the colonel.

The 50-year-old Khodaei remains a shadowy figure, and Iran has yet to provide biographical information beyond stating that he was a member of the elite Quds Force, which controls operations in the Middle East via Iran’s allied militias. The Guard referred to him as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who back militias fighting the radical Daesh group in Syria and Iraq.

The manner of the killing recalled earlier Israeli targeted attacks in Iran. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, was killed in a car accident near Tehran in November 2020.

Women in black chadors sobbed and wailed over Khodaei’s casket, an elegant box decorated in flowers and draped with the Iranian flag and Shiite mourning symbols.

“We want revenge only,” Moghtaderi, one of the mourners, told The Associated Press at the funeral. She gave only her last name. “Enemies must be aware that we are loyal to the martyrs and their blood is so precious to us.”

Iranian security forces are still pursuing the assailants, who escaped, state media reported. Authorities have yet to make any arrests over the killing.

The procession took place as a sandstorm blanketed Iran, shuttering schools and government offices in the capital.

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