Jan 1, 2022: Thousands rallied in the Iraqi capital to mark the second anniversary of the death of a respected Iranian commander and his Iraqi lieutenant in a US drone strike.

Chanting “Death to America,” the marchers filled Baghdad Square to pay tribute to Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani, who led the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm Quds Force until his death on January 3, 2020.

“American terrorism must end,” read a sign at a rally of pro-Iranian Hashad supporters, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a former paramilitary coalition led by the Iraqi state integrated into Iraq’s security apparatus.

Another placard read, “From now on we will not allow you to live in the land of the martyrs.” American and Israeli flags were scattered on the ground, people were trampling them.

Former US President Donald Trump ordered the attack, in which Soleimani was killed along with his Iraqi lieutenant, Abu Mehdi al-Mohandes, a deputy of Hashad, near Baghdad airport. Trump said the killing was in response to a wave of attacks on US interests in Iraq. The death of Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s military strategy in the Middle East, sent shockwaves through the region and raised fears of a direct military confrontation between decades-old enemies Washington and Tehran.

Supporters of Iran-aligned Shia factions were bussed in from various Iraqi provinces to the rally in Jadriyah, near the headquarters of the powerful armed groups. Iran, which wields considerable influence in neighbouring Iraq, warned it would avenge Soleimani’s death.

Five days after the killings, Iran fired missiles at a U.S. military base in Iraq and another near Erbil in the north. Since then, dozens of rockets and roadside bombs have hit Western security, military and diplomatic installations across Iraq. Iraqi and Western officials have blamed hardline pro-Iranian factions for the attacks, which no group has claimed responsibility for.

In February last year, the United States launched an air strike against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary force stationed along the Iraq-Syria border, following rocket attacks on the Baghdad embassy and a US military contracting firm north of the capital.

In December, Iraq announced the end of the US-led coalition’s “combat mission” against ISIS. But about 2,500 U.S. troops and 1,000 Allied troops will remain in Iraq to provide training, advice and assistance to national forces.

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