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Tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in Baghdad to mark the first anniversary of the death of a senior Iranian military commander and an Iraqi militia leader in a US drone strike, chanting anti-US slogans and demanding that US troops be expelled from the Middle East country.
Crowds gathered in Baghdad’s central plaza on Sunday to commemorate the death of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who led militias backed by Iran known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Protesters, carrying photos of the two military leaders killed in the drone attack at Baghdad airport on January 3 and chanting “America is the Great Satan”, marched during the rally largely organized by the militia.
The Trump administration has said Soleimani was the architect of the attacks on US troops in the Middle East that claimed hundreds of lives.
The unrest comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran as the United States, bracing for possible retaliation from Iran, sent B-52 bombers over the Persian Gulf and sent a sub -nuclear navy in the Strategic Waterway last month in a military show of force. .
Iran responded to the killings last year by launching a rocket attack on two Iraqi bases housing US troops, causing some concussions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday warned US officials not to allow Israel to trap them in a war with the Islamic Republic.
“New intelligence from Iraq indicates that Israeli agent provocateurs are planning attacks on Americans – putting an outgoing (President Donald) Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli,” he said.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called Zarif’s comments “nonsense.”
“We hear this nonsense from Zarif, that Israel is launching terrorist attacks against the United States – it really is total nonsense,” Steinitz said on Sunday.
With pole wires
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