Anniversary of general’s death marked

BAGHDAD: Tens of thousands of supporters of Iranianbacked Iraqi paramilitary groups chanted antiAmerican slogans in central Baghdad yesterday to mark the anniversary of the United States’ killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia commander.

The gathering coincided with increasing tensions between Iran and the United States in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Soleimani, head of an elite overseas unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed along with Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi alMuhandis in a US drone strike on January 3 last year.

Washington had accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranianaligned militias on US forces in the region.

Demonstrators who gathered yesterday in central Tahrir square waved the Iraqi and Popular Mobilisation Forces flags and chanted antiAmerican slogans such as ‘‘America is the great satan’’, while carrying the portraits of Soleimani and Muhandis. — Reuters