Iranians paid tribute at the grave of senior military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Saturday and called for revenge to mark the eve of the first anniversary of his killing by the United States.

“We are definitely waiting for the main revenge to see the reaction of our enemies, the United States and Israel,” said a Tehran resident.

On Friday, banners carrying Soleimani's image could be seen on Tehran's streets, as the country prepared for the anniversary of his killing by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3 last year.

The death of Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, caused a spike in tensions between Iran and the United States. Iran retaliated with a missile strike against a U.S. military base in Iraq a few days later on Jan. 8, 2020. Hours later, Iranian forces on high alert mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran.

Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.

Soleimani, a 62-year-old general, was Tehran's most prominent military commander and the architect of Iran's spreading influence in the Middle East