Iraqis mourn victims of drone attack
ON SATURDAY, thousands of Iraqis took part in the funerals of eight people killed in a US air strike on Baghdad.
Among those killed was the powerful commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani.
The funeral processions began at Baghdad’s al-Muthanna airport and headed to al-Kadhimiya, a sacred city for Shia people, according to Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a Shia Iraqi militia whose deputy leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was also killed in Friday’s strike, Efe news reported.
The coffins of al-Muhandis and other Iraqi members of the militia were covered by their country’s flag, while Soleimani’s coffin was covered by the Iranian flag.
The bodies were moved from al-Kadhimiya to al-Jadriyah, also in Baghdad, by four-wheel-drive vehicles amid strengthened security measures, including the presence of armed militia, according to footage broadcast by the Iraqi state-run al-Iraquiya TV.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel AbdelMahdi took part in the funeral proceedings, as did former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and the head of the PMF’s Authority, Faleh al Fayad.
Later on, the convoy headed to Karbala, a holy city for Shia, where top Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani is based, and Najaf city, both of which are located 100km to the south of Baghdad.
In Najaf, funeral prayers were given and the Iraqi citizens were buried.
Soleimani’s body was returned to Iran on Sunday.
The day before, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani warned the US of consequences for Soleimani’s killing.
“The Americans were not aware of the big mistake they made.
“They will face the consequences of their crime, not only today but also in the coming years,” Rouhani warned as he visited relatives of Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike outside Baghdad’s airport on Friday.
Soleimani was in charge of Iran’s foreign policy strategy as the head of the Quds Force.
It is an elite wing of the Revolutionary
Guard Corps, which the US has designated as a terror organisation.
The Quds Force holds sway over a large number of Shia militias across the region, from Lebanon to Syria and Iraq.
The air strike took place amid increased tensions between Washington and Tehran after hundreds of protesters stormed the US embassy in Baghdad on December 31, where they breached the main gate and entered some rooms, lighting fires.
On December 27, more than 30 rockets were fired against the K1 military base in Kirkuk in northern Iraq, killing an American contractor and wounding several US and Iraqi military personnel.
The Pentagon believes that the Shia militia group Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH) was responsible for attacks that since mid-October have targeted military bases and government facilities where US personnel are deployed to support the Iraqi army.
In response to the first fatality, the Pentagon carried out “defensive attacks” in Iraq and Syria against the KH.
These killed at least 25 people, according to the PMF. The action resulted in the assault on the US embassy.