Tens of thousands of locals have taken to the streets of Baghdad on the anniversary of the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani
Demonstrators gathered in central Tahrir Square on Sunday. They carried Iraqi flags and portraits of Suleimani and chanted anti-American slogans.
The head of the Popular Mobilization Force, Faleh al-Fayyad, and politician Hadi al-Ameri addressed the crowd and called for the expulsion of the US armed contingent.
Syed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation, also commented on the situation. In his address, he said the killing of Suleimani had caused serious repercussions in the region.
“Removing America from the region would not have been a serious and stated goal that people in the region should strive for if not for this historic incident”, – he said.
As News Front reported, a year ago, the US armed contingent carried out a high-profile and highly provocative attack that targeted Qassem Suleimani, commander of the elite Iranian unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Al-Quds. The attack was carried out on the personal orders of President Donald Trump, ostensibly to “protect US personnel overseas”.
The operation was initiated by Donald Trump under the pretext that an Iranian general was allegedly preparing an attack on four US embassies in the region. However, as then Pentagon chief Mark Esper later admitted, the agency had no evidence of the threat. The accusation was voiced by Trump, and the Pentagon took him at his word.