Al-Monitor - Iranians took to the streets nationwide Feb. 11 to hold mass state-organized demonstrations, celebrating yet another anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Western-backed monarchical rule of the shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Aside from the typical death slogans targeting the United States and Israel, this year�s anniversary turned into a memorial for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, whose death in early January in an American drone strike nearly pushed Tehran and Washington to the brink of all-out war. The event coincided with the 40th day after the assassination, which the Islamic Republic says rallied Iranians behind the flag as Soleimani was a �soldier of the nation� and a nonpartisan figure.

Holding Soleimani portraits, demonstrators renewed calls for retaliation. Iran showered an American base with a barrage of missiles less than a week after the general�s slaying. While the Islamic Republic claimed the strikes killed up to 100 soldiers, the United States � in its last updated account � denied any deaths but admitted that at least 109 service members suffered �traumatic brain injuries.� Iran�s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the missile attack as but �a slap,� and hard-line loyalists insist that true revenge will be exacted only after the United States is fully ousted from the Middle East.

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