Thousands of Iraqis chanted "Death to America" Saturday morning in Baghdad, in a procession around the coffins of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Deputy Chairman of the Popular Mobilization Organization, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, his most prominent aide in Iraq, who were killed Friday in an American raid.
Funerals take place in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad, before a national funeral was held in the Green Zone in the presence of a number of Iraqi leaders.
The funeral comes after Iraqi security sources announced the death toll of the Popular Mobilization in a bombing targeting a convoy on Taji Road, north of Baghdad, at dawn today, Saturday.
The crowd denied that the raid targeted a number of its leaders, and said in a statement carried by Reuters news agency, "Initial sources confirm that the raid targeted a convoy of the popular crowd near the Taji stadium in Baghdad."
Sources in the crowd said that there is no truth to the killing of the leaders: Shibl al-Zaidi, Raed al-Karawi and Hamid al-Jazaery, as reported by some media outlets.
Newsweek magazine quoted US Defense Department officials (the Pentagon) as saying that six members of the popular crowd were killed in a new American raid north of Baghdad, which was carried out by a drone.
| Soleimani's photo during the funeral service (Reuters) |
Raid and targets
The officials explained that the raid was targeting the Imam Ali Brigades, one of the crowd factions, and added that there is a high possibility that the leader of the Brigades, Shibl al-Zaidi, was among the dead.
The raid was part of a strategy approved by US President Donald Trump on Thursday morning, according to which the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Major General Qasim Soleimani, was killed in a raid on Baghdad airport.
The Iraqi official television had stated at dawn today that an American air strike targeted leaders of the popular crowd on the road to Taji.
Reuters news agency quoted an Iraqi military source as saying that two out of three cars caught fire, and six burned bodies were seen as a result of the shelling, which also resulted in the injury of three people.
This comes a day after the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani and other officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and elements of the popular crowd, including Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, deputy head of the crowd, in a US raid that targeted two cars at Baghdad airport.