(13 Mar 2020) ***
U.S. troops fired tear gas on January 1st 2020 as Iran-backed militiamen and other protesters gathered outside the American Embassy in Baghdad for a second day set fire to the roof of a reception area inside the embassy compound and burned tyres.
Dozens of Iran-allied militiamen and their supporters had camped out at the gates of the embassy overnight, a day after they broke into the compound, trashing a reception area and smashing windows before pulling back. It was one of the worst attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in years.
The U.S. Marines guarding the embassy fired tear gas January 1st as more crowds arrived and after the protesters lit a fire on the roof of the reception area. Smoke rose from the building. There have been no reports of any injuries since the protests began.
Members of the Iraqi Federal Police and other security forces were seen at the scene.
The militiamen were protesting deadly U.S. airstrikes that targeted an Iran-backed militia over the weekend, killing 25 fighters. Those strikes were in response to a rocket attack on an Iraqi army base that killed a U.S. contractor.
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On January 3rd thousands of worshippers took to the streets of Tehran after Friday Prayers to condemn the killing of the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad.
Protesters held up pictures of Soleimani, beating their chests as a sign of mourning while they chanted anti-US slogans.
Some protesters set fire to Israeli flags.
The US killed Soleimani, the architect of Tehran's proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport early on Friday, an attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region.
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Thousands of people gathered in central Tehran on January 4th to mourn and protest the death of Iran's top general, who was killed in a US airstrike a day earlier.
Mourners chanted anti-US slogans and called upon Iran to avange the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, who headed Iran's elite Quds force and was considered a mastermind of its regional security strategy.
Some burned US and Israeli flags chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," while others were seen crying as they paid their respects.
"The general was not just an individual but a whole country. They did not just kill one person, they killed a country," one of the mourners, Zohreh Rasti, said.
Another mourner described the loss of Soleimani as similar to losing his own father.
Soleimani was the architect of Iran's regional policy of mobilising militias across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, including in the war against the Islamic State group.
He was also blamed for attacks on US troops and American allies going back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
US President Donald Trump says he ordered the strike to prevent a conflict.
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Hundreds of thousands attended the funeral procession in Tehran on January 6th for a top Iranian general who was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad last week.
Mourners wearing black beat their chests and carried posters with Qassem Soleimani's portrait while chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel."
Demonstrators also unfurled red Shiite flags, which traditionally symbolize both the spilled blood of someone unjustly killed and a call for vengeance, as they accompanied Soleimani's remains through Tehran streets.
Tehran Police Chief General Hossein Rahimi said millions attended the farewell ceremony.
On January 5th hundreds of thousands of mourners accompanied the coffin carrying Soleimani's remains in the Iranian cities of Ahvaz and Mashhad.
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