Thousands of supporters of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella organisation of armed groups, on Saturday marked the second anniversary of the killing of a revered Iranian commander.
Qassem Suleimani was killed on January 3, 2020 in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport, along with Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, an Iraqi militia leader who was the de facto head of the PMF.
The PMF is an umbrella organisation of about 50 militia groups, ostensibly under Iraqi government control, although several of the groups have strong ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Suleimani and Al Muhandis played a key role – co-ordinating their operations across Iraq – against US and coalition forces between 2005 and 2011 and, later, against ISIS.
But attacks against Americans never ceased after the almost total defeat of ISIS in 2017, leading to a series of retaliatory clashes between the PMF and the coalition that culminated in the drone attack on January 3.
PMF supporters, chanting "Death to America”, filled a Baghdad square to honour Suleimani, who led the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the IRGC, until his death.
“US terrorism has to end” read one sign at the rally by supporters of the PMF, a former paramilitary alliance that has been integrated into Iraq’s state security apparatus.
Donald Trump, who was US president at the time, said that he had authorised the assassination in response to a wave of attacks on US interests in Iraq, including a fatal attack on US forces on December 27, 2019.
The killing of Suleimani, the architect of Iran’s strategy in the Middle East, sent shock waves across the region and sparked fears of a direct military confrontation between arch enemies Washington and Tehran.
Iran, which wields considerable influence in neighbouring Iraq, said it would avenge Suleimani’s death.
Five days after his killing, Iran fired missiles at an airbase in Iraq housing US troops and another near Erbil in the north.
Since then dozens of rockets and roadside bombs have targeted western security, military and diplomatic sites across Iraq.
Iraqi and western officials blamed hardline pro-Iran factions for the attacks, which have not been claimed by any group.
In February last year, the US carried out an air strike against Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary force stationed along the Iraqi-Syrian border, after rocket attacks on its Baghdad embassy and a US military contracting company north of the capital.
The PMF has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of US troops who are in Iraq as part of a multinational coalition fighting ISIS.
Senior PMF official Faleh Al Fayyad reiterated the demand on Saturday, saying the killing of Suleimani and Al Muhandis was “a crime against Iraqi sovereignty”.
In December, Iraq announced the end of the “combat mission” there of the US-led coalition against ISIS. But about 2,500 American soldiers and 1,000 coalition troops remain in Iraq to offer training, advice and assistance to national forces.
