A mock funeral procession marked the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s top general and a senior Iraqi militia leader in a US drone strike that heightened fears of a military escalation in the region.
Thousands of mourners joined the march on Saturday evening on the highway leading to the Baghdad airport, where the strike that killed general Qassem Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis took place.
Soleimani’s killing dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the region and brought the US and Iran to the brink of war.
Photo: Reuters
Posters of the dead men adorned both sides of the road, which was lined with tents that served food and drinks for those who walked the highway.
The scene of the bombing was turned into a shrine-like area sealed off by red ropes, with a photograph of Soleimani and al-Muhandis in the middle, as mourners lit candles.
Shrapnel marks were still visible on the asphalt and walls in the area.
Soleimani headed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign operations and frequently shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
The procession came as Iraq’s military said that explosives experts with its naval forces successfully dismantled a mine that was discovered stuck to an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf two days earlier.
The statement on Saturday said that Iraqi authorities had opened an investigation into the incident. No group has claimed responsibility for placing the mine.
The announcement came a day after Iraq confirmed reports by private security firms that a mine had been discovered attached to the side of a tanker rented from Iraq’s Oil Marketing Company, known as SOMO, as it was refueling another vessel.
It said that Iraqi teams were working to dismantle the mine.
Iraq has not provided further details, but the two private security firms said the discovery was likely a limpet mine on the MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged tanker.
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