BAGHDAD (IRAQ) – Thousands of Iraqis gathered at the central square of Baghdad on Sunday chanting anti-America slogans to mark the anniversary of the killings of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
The gathering coincided with increasing tensions between Iran and the United States in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration, and many in the crowd demanded revenge.
Soleimani, leader of an elite overseas unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed on Jan. 3, 2020, in a US drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport, an attack that took US-Iranian hostilities into uncharted waters and stoked concern about a major conflagration.
Washington had accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on American forces in the region.
Demonstrators gathering at Tahrir square in response to calls by an assortment of militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), which are mostly backed and trained by Iran, waved the Iraqi flag and chanted anti-American slogans such as “America is the Great Satan”.
Reflecting continuing regional strains, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday urged Trump not to be “trapped” by an alleged Israeli plan to provoke a war through attacks on US forces in Iraq.
An Israeli official dismissed the accusation as “nonsense” and said it was Israel that needed to be on alert for possible Iranian strikes on the anniversary of Soleimani’s death.
