BAGHDAD, Iraq: Thousands of Iraqi mourners have condemned the “American occupiers”, a year after a United States drone strike killed Iran’s revered general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
The anniversary of their deaths in Baghdad – which brought arch enemies the US and Iran to the brink of war – was also marked on Sunday in Iran and by supporters in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Streets leading to central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square were packed with thousands of protesters who had converged on the site since early Sunday morning.
The protesters raised pictures of Soleimani and al-Muhandis, and flags of Iraq, the Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), of which al-Muhandis was a leader, and other Iraqi factions.
They also carried banners with slogans demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and chanted for retaliation against those who carried out the assassination.
Streets leading to central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square were packed with thousands of protesters who had converged on the site since early Sunday morning.
The protesters raised pictures of Soleimani and al-Muhandis, and flags of Iraq, the Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), of which al-Muhandis was a leader, and other Iraqi factions.
They also carried banners with slogans demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and chanted for retaliation against those who carried out the assassination.
Addressing the protesters, the head of Hashd al-Shaabi, Faleh al-Fayyad, vowed retaliation against those who carried out the crime and called for the US troops to leave Iraq.
Gathered at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the Iraqi protesters were demanding the immediate, swift withdrawal of all remaining US troops in Iraq.
“They are also demanding a continuation of the kind of heated rhetoric that we’ve heard in a couple of days around the anniversary of the assassination of the leader of the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani. They are demanding and promising revenge,” he said.
Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said the mood was similar in Iran where the head of the country’s judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, as well as the head of the Revolutionary Guard, Major General Hossein Salami, said Tehran was not finished with avenging Soleimani’s death.
“That will come in due time. It’s something that we have heard from the supreme leader as well as the president earlier in December,” she said.
The powerful pro-Iranian Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary network in Iraq which al-Muhandis commanded has led the sombre and angry vigils for him and Soleimani, who headed the elite foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The commemorations started on Saturday night when thousands of black-clad mourners converged at the spot near Baghdad’s international airport where the US hit the two vehicles and killed Soleimani, al-Muhandis and eight other men.
By candlelight, they honoured their “martyrs” and condemned the American “Great Satan” at the site where nearby walls are still pockmarked by shrapnel.
“We tell America and the enemies of Islam that they can inflict the greatest sacrifices on us, but we will continue to resist despite the bloodshed,” said Hashd supporter Batul Najjar.
The Hashd – factions of which Washington has blamed for rocket attacks against its embassy and troops in Iraq – has increasingly challenged Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who it accuses of having helped plot the drone strikes.
This has increased tensions in the war-battered and politically fragile country which the US invaded in 2003, and which is struggling with an economic crisis amid low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.
Giant posters of Soleimani and al-Muhandis were hung above the square, which in late 2019 became the centre of large anti-government protests, from an abandoned building known as the Turkish restaurant.
Amid the tensions, Iraqis, and many in the wider region, are nervously watching for any signs of escalation before US President Donald Trump leaves the White House on January 20.
Trump confronted decades-old foe Iran by withdrawing in 2018 from its nuclear deal with world powers and launching a “maximum pressure” campaign to further economically punish and isolate the country.
Trump recently said on Twitter that the US was hearing the “chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq”, and warned: “If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.”
In recent days, US B-52 bombers have flown across the region for the second time in less than a month but, in what some read as a sign of de-escalation, Washington has also reportedly ordered its Nimitz aircraft carrier to leave the Gulf.
Iran and the United States – bitter enemies since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution and the US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran – have twice come to the brink of war since June 2019, most recently after Soleimani’s killing.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused Trump of aiming to fabricate a “pretext for war”, after the president blamed Tehran for a December 20 rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad.
In the war of words, Zarif on Saturday also claimed that, in Iraq, “Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans (to put) Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli (act to justify war)”.
Dear TNT Reader,
At The News Tribe, our mission is to bring you free, independent, and unbiased news and content that keeps you informed and empowered. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism, as we understand that we are a platform for truth.
Apart from independent global news coverage, we also commit our unique focus on the Muslim world. In an age marked by the troubling rise of Islamophobia and widespread misrepresentation of Muslims in Western media, we strive to provide accurate and fair coverage.
But to continue doing so, we need your support. Even a small donation of 1$ can make a big difference. Your contribution will help us maintain the quality of our news and counteract the negative narratives that are so prevalent.
Please consider donating today to ensure we can keep delivering the news that matters. Together, we can make a positive impact on the world, and work towards a more inclusive, informed global society.
Donate Monthly Subscription Annual Subscription
