Iraq: symbolic funeral for pro-Iran militiamen killed in US raids

Published on : 06/29/2021 – 14:05

Thousands of people, mostly members of the pro-Iran Hashd al-Chaabi militia and their supporters, marched through the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday, June 29, to attend a symbolic funeral for the victims killed in an American raid. against this coalition.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, the United States carried out strikes against these militias in response to attacks in recent months against their interests in Iraq, blamed on factions loyal to Tehran.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the raids destroyed a warehouse and a position of Iraqi militias members of Hachd al-Chaabi, near the town of Boukamal, in eastern Syria, no far from the Iraqi border.

“Accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from the country”

Under the cries of “Death to America” ​​and “Vengeance for the martyrs”, thousands of people gathered in the Jadiriyah district, near the Green Zone, a fortified sector of the capital which includes the embassies of the United States and Great Britain, noted an AFP correspondent.

Senior leaders of Hachd al-Chaabi, spearhead of anti-Americanism in Iraq, including Faleh al-Fayyad, Hadi al-Amiri, as well as Iraqi national security adviser, Qassem al-Aaraji, participated at this symbolic ceremony.

Escorted by cars carrying armed men dressed in black, the participants held up banners which read: “Targeting Hashd al-Chaabi must accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from the country”.

Photos of General Qassem Soleimani, architect of Iranian strategy in the Middle East, and his first Iraqi lieutenant, Abou Mehdi al-Mouhandis, number two of Hachd al-Chaab, killed on January 3, 2020 in a drone strike ordered by Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport, were placed on cars that preceded their convoy.

During a visit to Rome on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the nightly US strikes against pro-Iran militias in Iraq and Syria were a “strong” message to prevent any further attacks on them. American interests.

But in Baghdad, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi denounced him a “flagrant violation of” Iraqi sovereignty, while calling “to avoid escalation”.

With AFP