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Funeral procession of Qassem Soleimani, Abou Mehdi al-Mouhandis and the other victims of Thursday's American raid, Baghdad, January 4, 2020. REUTERS / Wissm al-Okili

The Iraqi capital hosts this Saturday the national funeral of Qassem Soleimani and Abou Mehdi al-Mouhandis, the Iranian general and the senior official of the pro-Iranian militia Hachd el Chaabi, killed with 8 other people Thursday in an American drone strike.

Thousands of Iraqis chant Saturday "Death to America" ​​in the procession that accompanies the coffins of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis , his main lieutenant in Iraq, killed Thursday in an American raid with eight others people, four Iranians and four Iraqis.

The coffins of the five Iraqis were brought to Kazimiya, a Shi'ite district of Baghdad, on pick-ups topped with national flags and which split the crowd dressed entirely in black. The bodies of the five Iranians were topped with the Iranian flag. After the Kazimiya Parade, an official national funeral will be held in the Green Zone of Baghdad in the presence of many Iraqi leaders. There are the headquarters of the highest institutions of the Iraqi state and the American embassy attacked on Tuesday by thousands of supporters of the Hashd.

The bodies will then be transported to Kerbala and Najaf, two Shiite holy cities further south, for final prayers before the burial of Mouhandis and the transfer of the body of Soleimani to Iran.

For its part, Iran is preparing to organize the funeral of General Soleimani. Ceremonies are planned for Sunday in the holy city of Machhad. Then, there will be an official ceremony Monday in Tehran in the presence of the supreme guide and senior leaders of the country, specifies our correspondent in Tehran, Siavosh Ghazi. Three days of mourning have been decreed.

Read also : How Iran could “avenge” the death of General Soleimani

On Friday evening, the United States struck Iranian supporters once again in Iraqi territory, according to Iraqi public television and police. An air raid targeted a convoy of Hachd al-Chaabi , this coalition of Iraqi militias very close to Tehran, explains Clément Therme, Iran specialist at CERI-Sciences Po for whom Iraq is taken hostage between the influences American and Iranian. It should also be remembered, that Iran has influence at the level of Iraqi political elites, not only at the level of militias and non-state groups.

So this is really the revelation of something we already knew: there were decisions that were made in Tehran, rather than in Baghdad, which moreover angered part of the Iraqis today 'hui. But it is necessary to put in perspective this anger vis-à-vis the Iranian interventions, compared to the anger which will emerge against the American intervention, this time, of violation of Iraqi sovereignty. So there is really this hostage-taking of Iraq between the American influence and the Iranian influence ”.