Thousands of supporters of an Iraqi alliance of armed teams marked Saturday the anniversary of a U. S. drone strike that killed a respected Iranian commander and his Iraqi lieutenant.
Chanting “Death to America,” Hashed al-Shaabi loyalists filled a square in Baghdad to honor Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who led the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, until his death on Jan. 3, 2020.
The nighttime drone strike near Baghdad airport sent shock waves into the region and raised fears that decades of hostility between Washington and Tehran’s regional Shiite force could turn into a direct army confrontation.
“US terrorism has to end,” read one sign at the rally by backers of the pro-Iranian Hashed, a Shiite former paramilitary alliance that has been integrated into Iraq’s state security apparatus.
Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, pictured from right, and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad Photo: AFP
The attack on Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s military strategy in the Middle East, ordered through then-US President Donald Trump, and also killed his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Hashed’s deputy chief.
Hashed supporters, some with their children, marched into a square in central Baghdad that was closed off to traffic, an AFP correspondent said.
Some unfurled huge white flags with the Hashed insignia as well as the Iraqi national flag, while others had images of Soleimani and Muhandis.
A sign hitting the United States and Israel and glorifying Soleimani shown at Saturday’s rally Photo: AFP/Sabah ARAR
The U. S. said at the time that Soleimani was planning an imminent action opposed to the U. S. worker corps in Iraq, a country long torn between competing demands from key allies Washington and Tehran, and the killing came after a wave of attacks on U. S. interests in the country. .
Iran, which wields cross-border influence, has warned it will avenge Soleimani’s death.
Five days after his assassination, he fired missiles at an air base in Iraq that housed U. S. troops and near Arbil in the north of the country.
Since then, dozens of roadside rockets and bombs have U. S. diplomatic, military and security headquarters across Iraq.
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, pictured from the right, and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad Photo: AFP
Iraq and the West blamed hardline pro-Iranian factions for the attacks, which were never claimed through any group.
In February last year, the United States carried out an airstrike opposed to Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi paraarmada force stationed along the Iraq-Syria border, following rocket attacks on its embassy in Baghdad and a U. S. army corporation north of the capital.
Hashed has called for the withdrawal of U. S. troops deployed in Iraq as a component of a multinational coalition fighting jihadists from the Islamic state organization.
Sunni extremists seized about a third of Iraq in a blitzkrieg offensive in 2014, but were repulsed through the U. S. -led coalition and the Hashed, before Baghdad declared the jihadists defeated in 2017.
Hashed’s most sensible official, Faleh al-Fayyad, reiterated the call for the United States to complete its withdrawal on Saturday, saying the killing of Soleimani and Muhandis is “a crime opposed to Iraqi sovereignty. “
In December, Iraq announced the end of the U. S. -led coalition’s “combat mission” in the country.
But about 2,500 U. S. troops and 1,000 coalition troops will need to remain deployed in Iraq to provide training, advice and assistance to national forces.
Hashed’s political wing, the Fatah Alliance (Conquest), performed very well in the 2018 parliamentary elections, thanks to the key role of paramilitaries in defeating ISIS.
While Fatah remains a political player, it lost nearly two-thirds of its seats in October’s parliamentary elections, driven by considerations even among the Shiite electorate about Iran’s enormous influence.
Starting with the anniversary commemorations, a candlelight vigil is scheduled Sunday night at Baghdad airport.
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior guard officials met with Soleimani’s circle of relatives on Saturday, ahead of Monday’s main commemorations.