A statue of assassinated Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani is consumed by flames in the Iranian city of Shahr-e Kord. Photo: Screenshot

An enormous statue of Gen. Qassem Soleimani — the late commander of Iran’s feared Quds Force who was assassinated by a US drone strike — was burned by protestors on Wednesday night, just hours after it was unveiled in the provincial city of Shahr-e Kord.

Iranian opposition activists on social media shared video and still images of the statue being consumed by flames. Some commenters argued that the apparent arson attack was a dramatic symbol of the failure of Iran’s Islamist regime to impose Soleimani as a symbol of Iranian national unity.

Official Iranian media outlets hinted at a deeper conspiracy behind the burning of the statue. “This treacherous crime was carried out in darkness, just like the other crime committed at night at Baghdad airport,” stated a report carried by the ISNA news agency, which described the statue’s burning as a “shameful act by unknown individuals.”

Soleimani was killed in the early hours of Jan. 3, 2020 during a US drone strike on Baghdad Airport, where he had just landed ahead of a meeting with the prime minister of Iraq. “This was a bad guy, and it was time to take him out,” then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said of the operation, adding that as the commander of the Quds Force (IRGC-QF) — the international wing Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — Soleimani had been responsible for the deaths and displacement of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Syria.

The burning of Soleimani’s statue in Shahr-e Kord, capital of Iran’s restive Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province in the southwest of the country, continues a pattern in recent months of burning banners and posters featuring Iranian leaders. Last August, another statue of Soleimani was reportedly burned down in the city of Yasuj, located in the neighboring province of  Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

Marking the second anniversary of Soleimani’s death this week, Iran revived calls for US and Israeli officials to be held accountable for the assassination.

“Given the dire implications of this terrorist act on international peace and security, the Security Council must live up to its [UN] Charter-based responsibilities and hold the United States and the Israeli regime to account for planning, supporting and committing that terrorist act,” the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Majid Takht Ravanchi, stated in a letter to the UN Security Council’s president on Monday.