WATCH: Slain Iranian top gun Qassem Soleimani playing volleyball with Iraqi militants before his death

A video has surfaced on social media platforms this week allegedly showing Quds General Qassem Soleimani playing volleyball with Iraqi militants in the home garden of the deputy chief of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Unites (PMU), Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, in Iraq.

The clip, whose date or authenticy cannot be verified, shows the two donning sportswear, accompanied by a number of other players, and was originally broadcast by a local Iranian TV channel, according to CNN Arabic. 

Both Soleimani and Muhandis were killed when US President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike on their convoy near Baghdad airport early in January.

In response, Iran launched retaliatory missile attacks on Iraq's Ain Al-Assad base, which gave over 100 US soldiers brain injuries.

The escalation bought the two countries on the brink of war and was the most direct confrontation between the US and Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

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On Friday, a White House memo appeared to contradict Trump's claims that the purpose Soleimani's and Muhandis' killing was to halt "imminent" threats.

Read more: White House says killing of Soleimani responded to past, not imminent, attacks

Instead, it was directed "in response to an escalating series of attacks in preceding months" by Iran and Iran-backed militias on US forces and interests in the Middle East region. 

Last week, Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif said the killing was a "miscalculation" that had the unintended consequence of bolstering support in Iraq for the removal of American troops, a longtime goal of Tehran.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, a group of Iraqi lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution to oust US troops and since then, the issue of American troops have monopolised Iraq.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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