Iraqi officials commemorate third anniversary of IRGC's Qasem Soleimani killing

Iraqi and Kurdish authorities on Thursday renewed their condemnations for the US airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Quds Force three years ago, vowing to take legal measures against former US President Donald Trump, who ordered the airstrike.

Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), were killed when a US drone hit their convoy at Baghdad's International Airport on 3 January 2020. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Thursday attended a commemoration ceremony held in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad. He described the killing by the former US administration as a "flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty" and "disrespected" joint treaties between both countries.

He also said that Soleimani was "Iraq's guest" and that the blood of Soleimani and al-Muhandis "must not go in vain", asserting that his cabinet will not let any further violations occur against Iraq's sovereignty and guests.

"Soleimani and al-Muhandis had foiled the enemy's plans, the crime of their targeting should always be rejected and condemned," Abdulla Aliawaye, the representative of Iraq's President Abdul Latif Rashid was quoted by Iraq's state media network during the ceremony.

Faiq Zidan, president of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, was also quoted by the network as saying, "the killings were cowardly crimes lacking any legal or moral bases… it is the judiciary's responsibility to hold the perpetrators of the killing accountable."

Last year, Iraq's judiciary issued an arrest warrant for former US president Trump for ordering the assassination of Soleimani and Muhandis.

A similar commemoration ceremony for both men was held in Sulaimaniyah city, in the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region. Representatives of all the Kurdish political parties and government officials attended the ceremony.

Niyaz Abdullah, a Kurdish freelance journalist and the winner of the 2022 International Press Freedom Award, denounced the ceremony and questioned how Kurdish authorities could hold such a ceremony while the Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan and the other Iranians were burning pictures of Soleimani in his home country of Iran.

The Quds Force is the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the PMF that was established in June 2014 after a fatwa [a religious edict] was issued by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader for Iraq's Shia community.

Al-Sistani urged young men to step up to fight the Islamic State (IS), an extremist group, which tore through Syria and Iraq, before capturing a third of the country in the summer of 2014.  PMF militias were officially incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces in 2016, however, several of these units proudly flaunt their loyalty to Iran.

لەئێران و رۆژهەڵاتی كوردستان وێنەكانی گەورە تاوانبار قاسم سولیمانی لەسەر شەقامەكان دەسووتێندرێن،خەڵك بەگژ ئەو حوكمڕانیەدا دەچێتەوە كەپیاوانی تیرۆریستی وەك سولیمانی كردۆتە"سەردار و رابەر"،بەڵام لەهەرێمی كوردستان بەرپرسان لەناو هۆڵەكان یادی ئەو تاوانبارە بەرز رادەگرن وستایشی دەكەن. pic.twitter.com/Xc1pX7f9xz

— Niyaz Abdulla (@niyaz_abdulla) January 4, 2023

Soleimani had a main role in helping his country fight proxy wars across the Middle East in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, in which many civilians are thought to be killed and wounded. 

The Islamic Republic has been rocked by demonstrations since the 16 September death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian, after her arrest in Tehran for allegedly breaching of the country's strict dress code for women.

Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest, including members of the security forces, while thousands of people have been arrested.