Model of U.S. Embassy burnt in Iraq

Demonstrators danced and sang while waving the Iraqi flag and sticks above their heads.

Staged in front of Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, the event also marked the second anniversary of the torching of a U.S. embassy security post by Iraqi protesters in anger at U.S. air strikes, an incident that set off a confrontation with guards and prompted the United States to send additional troops to the Middle East.

Soleimani, head of an elite overseas unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed on Jan. 3, 2020, in a U.S. drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport, a key blow to Iran-backed parties in Iraq which is routinely remembered.

Washington had accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region, and his killing took U.S.-Iranian hostilities into uncharted waters and stoked concern about a major conflagration.