Passengers are holding a mock parade on the highway leading to the area’s airport where the strike took place on 3 January 2020.
A fake funeral parade in Iraq marked the first anniversary of a drone strike near Baghdad by the United States that killed Iran’s chief general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Thousands of mourners marched on the parade on the highway leading to Baghdad airport on Saturday afternoon where the strike killed the two men.
As the highway was closed by cars, demonstrators carrying Soleimani and al-Muhandis posters decorated all sides of the road with tents that provided food and drinks for those walking.
The scene of the bombing was turned into a shrine-like place sealed with red ropes, with a picture of Soleimani and al-Muhandis in the center, when mourners lit a candle.
Flowers next to pictures of Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis [Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters]
Shrapnel marks were still visible on the asphalt and walls in the area.
Soleimani commanded the Quds elite force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, responsible for the foreign activity of the Islamic republic and frequently closed between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
His assassination greatly strengthened tensions in the region and brought the U.S. and Iran to an end.
Demonstrators in Baghdad are celebrating the first anniversary of Soleimani’s assassination [Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters]
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Baghdad, said further protests are expected across Iraq on Sunday.
“The protests are aimed at calling on the Iraqi government to pressure Americans to evacuate the remaining troops,” he said.
“At the same time, people on the streets are concerned about any potential increase or any decline in the security of this country.”
The march in Baghdad came when Iraqi military said explosive experts with their naval forces had discovered a mine that had been found stuck to an oil tanker in the Gulf of Persia two days earlier.
The statement on Saturday said Iraqi authorities have opened an investigation into the incident. No group has applied to plant the mine.
Conflict between Tehran and Washington has escalated up to the first anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s chief general.
In a letter to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Iran condemned U.S. “military daring” in the Gulf and Oman Sea, and “false information, baseless allegations and threatening astronomy” against Tehran.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. military flew two nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the Gulf in a blocking message on Iran, the latest in a series of such movements last month.
“New information from Iraq and (s) that Israeli activists are planning attacks against Americans – putting Trump out of touch with a false casus belli (war justifying action),” Iran’s Foreign Minister said Mohammad Javad Zarif in a tweet on Saturday
“Be careful of traps, @realDonaldTrump. Any firework goes back badly, ”Zarif wrote.
With less than a month left in the White House, Trump is under pressure from key Middle Eastern allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, to go against Iran, said Danny Postel, deputy director of the Center for International Studies and District at Northwestern University, to Al Jazeera.
“Trump is a very injured and fully cornered animal in an end-game situation. He has a few weeks left, and we know that he is capable of very erroneous behavior, ”said Postel, an expert on Iranian and US foreign policy.