Six Years On, Iraqis Keep Memory of U.S. Drone Strike Alive

Six years after the U.S. drone strike that killed senior Iranian and Iraqi figures, memories of the attack remain vivid for many Iraqis.

On Friday, crowds assembled under red and green lights at the entrance to Baghdad International Airport—renamed Martyr Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis Street in 2024—which had been turned into a solemn site of remembrance.

The gathering marked the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, who were killed in a U.S. strike on January 3, 2020.

Incense filled the air as funeral chants echoed through the area, carefully preserved to mirror the moment of the attack. Nearby, a memorial fashioned from the charred remains of the destroyed vehicles stood as a centerpiece, its twisted metal now decorated with white doves—symbols of peace set against the violence that once unfolded there.

Mourners paused at the site to pray in silence, while hundreds of candles and handwritten notes in Arabic and Farsi lined a nearby wall. Military bands and PMF units staged ceremonial marches, and symbolic coffins draped in Iraqi flags were carried through the crowd amid chants rejecting the United States.

Participants used the commemoration to deliver a clear political message, describing the strike as an act of aggression that strengthened Iraqi resistance to foreign intervention.

Abu Mohammed al-Shammari, a PMF official, denounced the killings as part of Washington’s drive for global dominance, accusing the United States of targeting independent and resource-rich nations that stand in the way of its long-term interests.

Iraqi lawyer Ahmed Ali Abbas al-Jubouri also criticized the strike, calling it humiliating and shameful, and accused the U.S. of relying on force and destruction rather than peace.

Along the road leading to the airport, billboards bearing images of Soleimani and al-Muhandis carried a message of remembrance, vowing that the blood of the slain would not be forgotten.

One attendee summed up the sentiment simply, saying the crimes attributed to the United States would remain etched in memory.