Lucknow, Jan 3 (IANS): Shias in Lucknow have called for protests and a condolence meeting on Saturday for Iranian commander, Gen Qasem Soleimani who was killed in pre- dawn American strike in Baghdad on Friday.

Prominent Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad has condemned the killing of the Iranian commander. In a video message posted on social media, he said: "This is a cowardly act of the American forces... America will be defeated in its evil design and the oppressed will win eventually."

The protest march has been planned from the Chhota Imambara in the old city here.

Soleimani, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) elite Quds Force, was killed in a Friday morning attack ordered by US President Donald Trump. The move that was met with harsh criticism from Tehran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei who has vowed "tough revenge" on Washington in response.

The IRGC said that Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of the Hashd Shaabi or the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), were killed in a US air strike that targeted the vehicle they were travelling in on the Baghdad International Airport road.

Khamenei said that the "cruellest people on earth" assassinated the "honourable commander who courageously fought for years against the evils and bandits of the world", reported the Tehran-based Press TV.