Thousands gather in Baghdad in 2020 to celebrate the assassination of Iran’s general News of Soleimani’s murder

Thousands of people have gathered in the Iraqi capital to celebrate the second anniversary of the killing of an Iraqi commander and his Iraqi lieutenant in a drone strike.

Shouts of “Death to America”, marchers fill a square in Baghdad to pay tribute to General Iran Qassem Soleimani, Quds Force, the arm of the foreign operations elite of the Revolutionary Guard, until his death on January 3, 2020.

“Terrorism in the United States must end,” the pro-Iranian Hashed said in a statement. People’s Mobilization Forces (PMF), a former paramilitary alliance in the Iraqi state security apparatus.

“We will not allow you to remain in the land of the martyrs from today,” said another poster. The U.S. and Israeli flags were thrown on the ground and trampled on by the people.

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said protesters were using the rally as an opportunity to repeat calls for U.S. and foreign troops to withdraw completely from Iraq.

“Thousands of protesters, members of the Iraqi People’s Mobilization Force, were protesting against the presence of US and US troops in Iraq,” Baghdad said in a statement.

“It simply came to our notice then [Iraqi] Because they believe that the government is cooperating with US forces, “he continued,” there has been no clarity or transparency in the investigation in the last two years since the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. ”

Supporters of Shiite groups aligned with Iran were taken from several Iraqi provinces to the Jadriyah demonstration near the headquarters of powerful armed groups.

Former US President Donald Trump has ordered the attack that killed Soleiman near the airport in Baghdad, along with Iraqi Lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis Hashed deputy.

Trump then said the assassination was in response to a wave of attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq.

The killings of Soleimani, Iran’s Middle East military strategy architect, and al-Muhandis were shocking throughout the region, sparking fears of a direct military confrontation between enemies in Washington and Tehran for a decade.

A few days later, the Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel all foreign troops from Iraq.

Iran, which has a strong influence on neighboring Iraq, warned that it would avenge Soleimani’s death.

Five days after the assassination, Iran fired missiles at an Iraqi air base in the US and north of Erbil.

Since then, dozens of rockets and roadside bombs have been targeted at security, military and diplomatic centers in western Iraq.

Iraqi and Western officials have blamed the attacks on pro-Iranian hardline factions, and the group has never claimed responsibility.

In February last year, the US did it an air attack Kataeb against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed paramilitary force in Iraq, stationed on the border between Iraq and Syria, after firing rockets against a military recruitment company north of the Baghdad embassy and the US capital.

Hashed has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq as part of a multinational coalition fighting the ISIL (ISIS) group.

Hashed’s top official Faleh al-Fayyad reiterated his demand on Saturday, saying the killing of Soleiman and al-Muhandis was “a crime against Iraqi sovereignty.”

In December, Iraq announced the end of the US-led coalition against ISIL. But about 2,500 U.S. troops and about 1,000 coalition troops will remain in Iraq to provide training, advice and assistance to national forces.

“We will not accept the complete withdrawal as revenge for the blood of our martyrs,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a coalition leader in Iran.