BAGHDAD, Jan 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of Iraqis chanting “Death to
America” on Saturday mourned an Iranian commander and others killed in a US
drone attack that sparked fears of a regional proxy war between Washington
and Tehran.
The killing of Iran’s Major General Qasem Soleimani on Friday was the most
dramatic escalation yet in spiralling tensions between Iran and the United
States, which pledged to send thousands more troops to the region.
Iraqi political leaders and clerics attended the mass ceremony to honour
62-year-old Soleimani and the other nine victim of the pre-dawn attack on
Baghdad international airport, including Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi
al-Muhandis.
US President Donald Trump said Friday he had decided to “terminate” Iran’s
military mastermind to prevent an “imminent” attack on US diplomats and
troops.
“We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a
war,” he insisted.
But the strike — which killed four more Iranian Guards and five members of
Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network — infuriated Iran, whose
ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, called it an “act of
war” by its arch-enemy.
On Saturday, the Hashed said a new strike had hit a convoy of their forces
north of Baghdad, with Iraqi state media blaming the US.
But US-led coalition spokesman Myles Caggins denied involvement, telling
AFP: “There was no American or coalition strike.”
– Mourning procession –
Mass ceremonies started in Baghdad Saturday for Soleimani — a veteran
military figure revered as a hero by many in Iran and the region — and the
other victims of Friday’s attack.
Iraq’s caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi joined Muhandis associate Hadi
al-Ameri, Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, former PM Nuri al-Maliki and other
pro-Iran figures in large crowds accompanying the coffins.
The coffins were first brought to a revered Shiite shrine in northern
Baghdad, where thousands of mourners chanted “Death to America!”
Dressed in black, they waved white Hashed flags and massive portraits of
Iranian and Iraqi leaders, furiously calling for “revenge”.
The crowds headed south to a point near the Green Zone, the high-security
district home to government offices and foreign embassies, including
America’s. The remains will later be taken to the Shiite holy city of Najaf
to the south, and the remains of the Guards will then be flown to Iran, which
has declared three days of mourning.
As head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm,
Soleimani was a powerful figure domestically and oversaw wide-ranging Iranian
involvement in regional power struggles.
Soleimani had long been considered a lethal foe by Washington, with Trump
saying he should have been killed “many years ago”.
Tehran has already named Soleimani’s deputy, Esmail Qaani, to replace him.
His first order of business was made clear Friday when Iran’s supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised “severe revenge” for Soleimani’s
death.
– US scales back ops –
Iraqi paramilitary figures including US-blacklisted Qais al-Khazaali and
militiaman-turned-politician Moqtada Sadr have called on their fighters to
“be ready”.
And, elsewhere in the region, Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Shiite movement
Hezbollah threatened “punishment for these criminal assassins”.
Amid the tensions, the Pentagon said up to 3,500 additional US troops would
be dispatched to Iraq’s southern neighbour Kuwait, to boost some 14,000
reinforcements already deployed to the region last year.
There are approximately 5,200 US troops stationed across Iraq to train
Iraqis to fight jihadists.
They have faced a spate of rocket attacks that the US has blamed on pro-
Iran factions and which last month killed an American contractor.
On Saturday, a US official told AFP the US-led forces were scaling back
operations and refocusing surveillance to watch for new rocket attacks.
“Our first priority is protecting coalition personnel,” the official said,
saying there would be only “limited” training and anti-jihadist operations
for now.
US citizens were meanwhile urged to leave Iraq immediately and American
staff were being evacuated from oil fields in the south.
Abdel Mahdi warned Friday that the US strike would “spark a devastating war
in Iraq”, while President Barham Saleh pleaded for “voices of reason” to
prevail.
Pro-Iran factions in Iraq have seized on Soleimani’s death to push
parliament to revoke the security agreement allowing for the deployment of US
forces on Iraqi soil.
Iraqi lawmakers were to convene in emergency session on Sunday and expected
to hold a vote.
Analysts said the US strike, which sent world oil prices soaring, would be
a game-changer.
Phillip Smyth, a US-based specialist on Shiite armed groups, described the
killing as “the most major decapitation strike that the US has ever pulled
off.”
He expected “bigger” ramifications than either the 2011 operation that
killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden or the 2019 raid that killed IS leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.