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Anti-US chants as thousands march in Baghdad on Qassem Soleimani killing anniversary
- Thousands of mourners converged at the spot near Baghdad’s airport where a US drone strike killed Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Muhandis
- Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief vowed to respond to any ‘action the enemy takes’
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Thousands of Iraqi mourners on Sunday condemned the “American occupiers”, one year after a US drone strike killed Iran’s revered commander Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
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The anniversary of their deaths in Baghdad – which brought arch enemies the United States and Iran to the brink of war – was also marked in Tehran and by supporters in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.
The lead-up to the commemorations of the Shiite Muslim commanders has again heightened regional tensions in the weeks before US President Donald Trump, who ordered the killings, leaves the White House.
In Iraq, the powerful pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network which Muhandis commanded has led the sombre and angry vigils for him and General Soleimani, who headed the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Thousands of black-clad mourners on Saturday night converged at the spot near Baghdad’s international airport where the US hit the two vehicles and killed Soleimani, Muhandis and eight other men.
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